Wrapping it up

December 17th. 2016 Nearly there: just eight days to go. This will be my last post in 2016 for obvious reasons. So much to do, so much already done. Those of you who have been following my posts will know that I am getting close to finishing my novel. My wife is doing the final edit, which should be complete by the end of the day. I will read it through again and, hopefully, not find any more errors. Pat has found plenty of those already. I’m still deliberating over the book jacket, but expect to resolve this soon. My next problem is how I’m going to launch the book. I expect to send it out to some beta readers while I’m thinking about it, but I’m also toying with the idea of submitting it to Kindle Scout. If I do that I can expect to wait about seven weeks before I can publish, which will get me close to early March. Seems a long way away, but I need to push the boat out for this. Next year the CHINDI group will be looking ahead to improving our book sales and getting involved in charity events. Because we have a Company in the Community (CIC) established, it’s necessary to have directors. The company is non-profit making (by law), but it helps to move any money we make for the charities into and out of a bank account so that we can account for all monies received and distributed. I’m a director of the company along with three other members, and we’ll be having a meeting early January to brain storm our ideas for 2017. We have some events lined up, which we hope will pay dividends. I have a live interview in the programme with an American writer, Debbie Mack, and hope to be teaming up with other writers in my genre to do some cross promotions. There are so many ways to keep your name live in the public eye, but it usually comes down to how much of an investment you’re prepared to make and for how long. Looking back through the year I can at least say I have improved my public presence having built my subscriber list up to 1100. I also managed to sell about 5000 books, largely due to a successful BookBub promotion. Now I need to find some way of sustaining that. Meanwhile, let me wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. See you all in 2017.

Bits and Pieces

December 11th 2016 Do you ever read novels for a second time intentionally? About a third of the way into the Sam Bourne novel I started last week, I realised I read it a few years ago. It couldn’t have left that much of an impression on me. I sometimes read my own books again, often a few years after they have been published. I remember Barbara Cartland once saying she often read her own novels when she was feeling unwell and not in the mood for writing. Mind you, she had about three hundred titles to choose from! I’ve been toying with my jacket cover, trying this and that with Photoshop. I still can’t make up my mind just how I want to present the cover. I have two so far, and will begin a third jacket in a day or so. I could ask my boys for their opinions, but if I do that I can only expect saucy remarks from them. It all comes down to opinions in the end, so I’ll probably go with my own. The editing has reached a lull at the moment because of the usual Christmas work load: putting decorations up, shopping for presents, writing cards out and queueing at the Post Office. Hopefully it will be finished by the end of the month and I can ask a few beta readers to run their eyes over it. I’m a bit reluctant to ask my subscribers because I may get inundated with offers to read it, and I’m hoping to rely on them buying it on launch day. I don’t know if it’s my age or what, but I find myself doubting the quality of my current work. I remember my publisher, John Hale, telling me that as authors age, so their ability diminishes. So far I have always received good comments about my books and my reviews maintain a reasonable average, but the doubts are there. Silly really, but maybe it’s because I have struggled with this one. And maybe because it isn’t the kind of novel I write. Time will tell though. Looking back over the year with CHINDI, we have managed to raise money for charities — over £1000 I believe — most of it raised through bookstalls etc. Next year we have a few events planned, most which will run current with the Chichester Festival — always a good time to attract readers and wannabe authors. We lost a few members over the year, thankfully for personal reasons rather than ill health, but we are already planning for next year’s events. Two weeks from today and it will be Christmas Day and we’ll all be nice to one another for a while. Hopefully we can look ahead to a peaceful New Year all over the world, but that really is wishful thinking. From a personal perspective I hope I can manage another novel, but I have kind of promised myself to finish my autobiography. I published a short version last year called The Sum of my Life (The early years). Now I hope I can extend it to completion as well as write another book. Two in one year? Wish me luck!

Infections, corrections and displacements.

December 3rd. 2016. Regular readers of my weekly blog may have noticed that I missed a week. That was because I got laid low by an infection that seriously impeded my work-flow. But I’m back in harness now and making good progress on my manuscript. I tried to get a little more reading in while I was poorly. I’m afraid I didn’t make it through to the end of Jack Reacher; it became tedious. I’ve started on a Sam Bourne novel now. Hope this one is more engaging. I had a book promotion last week — sold nine books. The return on the cost of the promotion is difficult to quantify or even justify, but fortunately I didn’t pay much for it. I’ve been avoiding all the adverts for Black Friday and whatever they call Monday. I can’t see the point because if you respond to these enticements, it kind of propels you into unplanned promotion that could be useless. No, I’m gritting my teeth and will hold on to my money until early next year when my next book will be ready. At the moment my wife is going through the manuscript with her red pen, and I am playing around with Photoshop and learning about ‘displacements’. Brilliant stuff, but may be a bit too technical for me. I enjoy playing around with it though. I came up with a title for my book eventually. I’m not going to say what it is yet, but it came out of the blue. Once it had settled in my brain, it became permanent. This is one of the reasons I’m learning about displacements on Photoshop: to match the cover design with the title. Last week I joined up with the Dream Team Network. This is a group of writers who are part of Nick Stephenson’s 10,000 reader group. It’s a closed group. The idea is to cross promote other writers who work in your genre. It’s going to be difficult to match up with a writer who covers several genres like myself. But more importantly, there’s a need to ensure cooperation with a writer who can offer a similar fan base of subscribers. I have 1100 subscribers, so it would be wrong to team up with a new writer who has one book, no reviews and no fan base. I was asked by one of our group if we could come up with something, but I realised it wouldn’t work. Another problem with cross promotion is how much you trust the other writer. I have to ask myself if I would promote someone whose work I haven’t read. And it’s reciprocal as well: that other writer has to trust me. I’ll have to go with my gut instinct, see how it pans out. On the domestic front, my wife has just de-knotted our Cockapoo, Tuppence, and given me a haircut. Now me and the dog look tidy enough to go out. Life doesn’t get any better, does it? Wish me luck.

A Hard Day's Week

November 20th. 2016 It’s been a very full week for me and my wife, which has impacted on the amount of editing I’ve been able to do. The first three days we were up in Lincolnshire visiting two close friends, one of whom is unwell. As I mentioned in last week’s blog, our grandson Adam came over and looked after Tuppence. I think they both enjoyed it. I know Tuppence kept looking for Adam after he had gone home. I managed to do some editing, snatching moments when I could. One conclusion I came to was that I was hurrying the process, and that leads to mistakes. It will need a third read through before I hand it over to my wife. That’s when the fun begins; she’ll wield her red pen with relish. Last Thursday it was me and the dog; Pat was out on a shopping trip. I did manage to feed myself, walk the dog and get a little editing done as well. One thing that has been on my mind for a while is a title. I can’t get the word Apollyon out of my head, but feel I need something else. The story is about a group of satanic worshippers, although this is not about demons and devils; it’s about a sinister group of powerful people who want control within the corridors of corporate and government power. It isn’t about the overthrow of a government or the downfall of huge companies, but more of uncovering the unexplained death of a cabinet minister and how the hunt leads to the guilty ones. It’s a mixture of crime and mystery. It isn’t about police work either. Moving on. Friday was the annual, CHINDI party at Chichester. This was in aid of the charity, Dyslexia in Action. I must confess I’d never heard of the charity, but I’m always pleased to be involved in this kind of fund raising. The event included a band, a host of raffle prizes donated by local companies, and readings from four of our author members. I sold a couple of books, which is par for the course really, but it’s good to be able to chat to people about your work and hopefully encourage them to part with their money. I know I must brush up on my sales technique though. One chap came up to my table (the authors shared tables, so no-one had a table to themselves) and opened his mobile phone, went on-line to Amazon, scrolled through and checked out my titles, then shut the phone. He told me the books were all there and he might download some. Then he walked away. As much as I would like to hope that he will be true to his word, I wish he hadn’t been so blatant: perhaps a little more discreet. Saturday morning and another table top sale, but this time in our local church raising money for the children’s ward at St.Richard’s hospital in Chichester. Another good cause. I began reading Lee Child’s book, Make Me. He’s an amazing author: writes the same story each time but in a different part of the USA. He gets away with it. I must admit that he is very good at what he does, and I usually enjoy his Jack Reacher books (does he do anything else?). Often we are told as writers that to learn our craft we should read other authors who write in our genre. But what could I learn from Lee Child? Answers on a postcard please…… So by the end of the week, both me and Pat felt we had put in a hard shift at work. It’s what comes of being retired. Now I will get on with the editing and should have it finished by the end of the week. Then another read through. All I need is a title! Wish me luck.

Pump up the Volume

November 12th. 2016 Mixing with a bunch of writers always helps to raise your spirits when talking about upcoming promotions etc. Our CHINDI party (www.chindi-authors.co.uk) takes place on Friday in Chichester. Last year’s was a success, and we hope for a repeat of the same. Table top sales aren’t always going to achieve high sales, but this event will include raffle prizes — all donated by local companies — nibbles, a band, and four of our authors launching new books. The publisher, Harper Collins, has donated a hamper of books, and the well-known celebrity Charlie Borman has tweeted about the party too. The reason we have been getting this kind of response is because we are supporting the charity, Dyslexia in Action. Hopefully we’ll be able to swell their coffers. The CHINDI group do try to promote themselves through fund raising activities, and it helps to have members who have connections. I know that I couldn’t achieve a quarter of that kind of outreach without their help. It’s all good. I’m making some progress on my re-write. Editing is a tricky business, particularly when you make a small change that has a knock-on effect throughout the story. That’s where I find Scrivener so helpful. Having all my scenes listed under their relevant chapters, and the ‘corkboard’ facility, makes it so much easier to jump to the place in the story where you need to make a change. I also keep track of the storyline through a timetable which I update after each scene edit. I find it crucial because it is so easy to have a character somewhere one morning and somewhere else in another scene at a different time. I read a quote last week from Jeffrey Archer: he said he does fourteen drafts before he is satisfied! Sooner him than me; but then, he’s a best-selling author. I’ve succumbed to the promotion pressure and paid for a single day, November 28th, for a bargain book deal. I chose Roselli’s Gold because it’s probably my best-selling book. I was tempted to promote A Dangerous Game, but I’ve pushed that most of the year and it hasn’t outsold Roselli’s Gold. It’s a dilemma trying to pick one of my titles to promote, although it shouldn’t matter if the promotion achieves better sales than usual. My wife and I are off for a few days on Monday visiting two friends in Lincolnshire. Our grandson, Adam, is coming over to look after the dog while we’re away. Adam has an amazing talent for drawing, and has a bunch of work to do for clients. Hopefully our Tuppence won’t distract him while he works. Wish him luck!

Changing Things

November 5th. 2016 Tonight is bonfire night! Well, in UK anyway. Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605. 400 plus years later and our government is still under threat, but this time by those opposed to Brexit. There have been numerous re-writes since Guy Fawkes: different bodies of opinion trying to bring down the rulers (good or bad). It wouldn’t make a good novel though because there never seems to be an end to it all. I reached a milestone this week: I finished the first draft of my novel. My word target was 80,000. I managed 79,940: almost a bullseye. But it won’t last because I will be doing a re-write and expect to add more words to it. One of my CHINDI author friends has suggested I leave it for ten days before starting again. I can’t do that; I can’t get the re-write out of my mind. One or two changes are definitely in the pipeline, and no doubt I’ll find more. One problem I had for a while was how to finish the book. I couldn’t come up with a satisfying finish, no matter how much I tried. In the end I did something most writers are advised to do when struggling — plough on! This I did and wrote the book into an ending which I hope will not need changing; I really like it. One of the problems I encounter when dreaming up scenarios when I’m not writing (out shopping for example), is that I believe I’ve come up with a great idea, but eventually have to drop it or modify it, which I do with great reluctance. I nursed a beauty of an idea for a couple of weeks, and was looking forward to writing it in. Once it was there, I was happy, until I realised that it didn’t work, so it had to go. I modified it actually, but it meant changing the run in to the end, which is how I managed to come up with an ending that fitted perfectly. Although I don’t expect to see the completed manuscript for several weeks, I am still struggling for a title. I have one in my head that will not go away — APOLLYON. No, it doesn’t mean ‘Devil’, but ‘Destroyer’. I can imagine the word on the cover and something — I don’t know what — behind it. I will work on the design myself, once the manuscript is with my wife for further editing. That will give me plenty of time to tear my hair out while battling with PhotoShop. Ah, the life of a struggling writer! I’m looking forward to November 18th. That’s the night our CHINDI group have their annual party. Last year was a success, although planning wasn’t too spectacular. This year we are a little wiser, so hopefully it will be successful and gain us more readers. My book sales and rankings are doing their usual trick, high and low. I’m not promoting anything at the moment, which is deliberate, although I’m getting inundated with offers to take advantage of the holiday season and an invitation to take up their splendid offers. It’s a bit like choosing a queue in the Post Office or the supermarket: you always pick the wrong one. I will probably do something before December, but not too sure which way to go: straight promotion for a ‘cheapie’ book on one of the more recognisable websites, or fall for the advertising charms of a lower level website. Whatever I do with a promotion, I may have some highs, but I will also have lows; it’s the way things are at this level. Wish me luck!

Removing the unwanted bits

October 29th. 2016 I have now more or less broken the back of my first draft. I still have about 10,000 words to go before reaching my initial target of 80,000. When I have finished the re-write, I expect to raise this figure by about ten percent. If I was still under contract to my last publisher, now defunct, I would have been asked to trim the word count by a considerable margin. As an Indie writer, I can do as I please, although I have to remember that more words does not necessarily make it a better story. I find myself thinking of scenes I have written that day and realising that my timing is out, or that I just don’t like what I’ve written. It’s a gut feeling always, one I expect most writers have. We are approaching the ‘holiday’ season according to the promoters who are trying to persuade us indie writers that now is the time to get out there and promote. No doubt there are statistics to back all this up — Thanksgiving and Christmas come to mind. For the promoters, it’s a golden opportunity to increase their profits as we succumb to the temptation and spend our money on promotions, the majority of which will stare bleakly into the abyss and do nothing for our book sales. But I have given in to one, and that is a Cross Promotion activity that will probably reach more potential readers than a direct advert. More bang for the buck as they say. If it works, I will let you know through these pages; just don’t hold your breath though. On the domestic front, I successfully took a Rainbow Shark out of my aquarium and gave it back to the local garden centre where they accept fish that are no longer wanted. I had it for two weeks, and it would not leave my other fish alone. Sharks are territorial, which is not really helpful for the other residents in the tank. I replaced it with a couple of Mollies. The shark was only a wee one, nothing like Jaws! Interesting article in today’s paper about the Man Booker prize winner, Ralph Beatty and his book, Sellout. Apparently he uses the word “nigger” about two hundred times (I can’t confirm that). When my romance, Past Imperfect, was with my publisher, my editor asked me to remove the word because it would be deemed offensive in today’s ‘climate’. I had used the word once! Perhaps if I had insisted on leaving it in, I might have generated some controversy and sold more books. Yesterday we took our Cockapoo puppy, Tuppence, to be spayed. It seemed such a shame for a young one like that (she’s nine months old), but it was recommended by the vet. We did a lot of soul searching over this. Now we have a very docile little girl who needs some TLC. She’s eating OK and doing the business etc. but she should be back to her sock chasing, ball playing, love other dogs mode fairly soon. Wish me and Pat luck!

A Patchy Week (Apache?)

October 22nd. 2016 Looking at my diary for the previous seven days, it’s blank. Anyone would think I don’t do anything. I’ve managed to add about two thousand words to my WIP, but have had to interrupt the flow because of hospital appointments, a flu jab, and a trip to Specsavers. We also made a pointless journey to a garden centre to buy something they didn’t stock. We didn’t know that until we arrived. So, stayed there, had lunch and drove home. Sometimes the week is more or less pre-ordained and your plans fit together seamlessly. Other times there’s a kind of haphazard, flying by the seat of your pants period over which there is little or no control. I received the hardback copy of A Dangerous Game from Ingram Spark. I was very pleased with the result. It cost nothing because of an offer from Ingram, but it has encouraged me to have my next book published in hardback too. I looked at my Amazon rankings today (I do it every day), and saw a gradual rise over the last four weeks: nothing dramatic of course, but on September 22nd. I was at 177,000. Today I have moved up to 80,000. To some people, that might look quite poor, but any struggling writer reading this will understand that the rise is always pleasing to see, and means my books are still selling. There are highs and lows during that period of course, but a rise is a rise. The planned #lovetoread CHINDI party on the 18th. November looks like it could be a great evening. There are some splendid raffle prizes being donated, including a bumper book hamper from Random House. All proceeds will go to Dislexia Action, a worthwhile charity. You can read more about this on our website at www.chindi-authors.co.uk The six minute video of me reading an extract from my latest book, A Dangerous Game, has now been uploaded to my YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_pFFfhAKiw) and is also on my website www.michaelparkerbooks.com Thanks to Dan Jones, one of the CHINDI authors, for taking the time to record us all. And who says men can’t multitask? At the moment I’m listening to SKY Sports Soccer Saturday and writing this blog. This morning, nothing to do with multi-tasking, I watched the Australian Speedway Grand Prix. It was the last one of the season which saw the American rider, Greg Hancock, crowned world champion for the fourth time. The Aussie rider, Chris Holder won the Grand Prix, which was great stuff — an Aussie winning the GP in his own country. Next up for me? There are several things on the calendar, but hopefully I will make some solid progress on my WIP. Wish me luck!

Talk,Talk and a Rainbow Shark

October 15th. 2016 Last Monday, one of our CHINDI authors spent an afternoon in Chichester doing video interviews for each of our members. These were short, five minute interviews which will go on our You tube channel, and subsequently on to our own websites and that of CHINDI. It was simply a video of us reading an extract from our latest book and a description of what the book is about. Five minutes? Gosh, we writers need a load more time than that because we want to talk about ourselves and our writing, don’t we? But thanks to Dan Jones who spent his afternoon doing this; we really do appreciate you, Dan. On Tuesday I dropped the price of my latest thriller, A Dangerous Game (ASIN:B01AKCLP60). Why did I do that? Believe it or not, I can’t remember. There was a note in my diary to drop the price. Obviously it was because of an upcoming promotion. Trouble is, I can’t remember who the promotion is with! It will be a free one of course, because no money has been taken out of my bank. Must be my age; how on earth can I miss something like that. Now I have to keep the price low for a week or so, just to make sure I don’t default on the mysterious promotion. Wednesday I was in Brighton doing a book talk for the Royal Sussex Hospital radio. I agreed to be there before ten o’clock, and left home early enough. I arrived in Brighton at 9.30 and spent about twenty five minutes looking for a parking space. I walked into the studio at two minutes past ten. Phew! As much as I am happy to do this kind of thing, there is no feedback from the event. Rosemary Alex, who runs the book talk, told me that the average stay in hospital is about four days, so there’s no follow up from patients who have listened. It’s an unquantifiable event, but nevertheless it’s done in good faith. Hopefully someone would have enjoyed me talking about myself and my books. My WIP is gathering momentum. My word count has reached 65,000, which puts me 15,000 short of my target. But I have a feeling I will go beyond that, simply because this is the first draft, and I’m expecting to put some meat on the bones when I do the rewrite. I find myself now going over the story in my head, writing scenes that fit in nicely and getting quite excited to think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have conjured up a nice little twist to the story which I’m itching to write in, but I’m forcing myself to hold back. It’s the kind of twist that will have the reader thinking … well, I can’t say what they might think, but I know what I would say. Our CHINDI group is now promoting the #lovetoread party in Chichester on Friday 18th. November. This is in aid of Dyslexia Action, and will be an entertaining evening which will include a local band. There will be all manner of things available including fine wines, hand-crafted chocolate, raffle prizes and, of course, the opportunity to buy our signed books. All proceeds to the dyslexia charity. I bought more fish for the aquarium this week including a Rainbow Shark. No, not Jaws, but a cute little shark that I’m told might grow quite big and start eating the little fish. Hopefully my little fish will have grown bigger by then and be able to defend themselves. Wish me luck!

Reaching Out

October 8th. 2016. It’s our son, John’s birthday today. Takes me back to when he was born in a small, cottage hospital in Ely, Cambridgeshire. I had to look after his two brothers, both toddlers. Perhaps I should write a book about the fun we had! A couple of months ago, a local chap contacted me through my website asking for advice about getting a book into print. We met up for a chat in the local pub where I was able to give him the advice he needed. His book is now in print and available on Amazon. It’s called Rising Sun Memories. (ASIN B01LZ90BQY). He writes as Stuart James. The story is a mix of fact and fiction, semi-autobiographical and covers three years during the Japanese occupation of Singapore. I’m sure this book will appeal to fans of war stories, particularly those penned from eye-witness accounts. I’ve downloaded a copy and enjoying what I’ve read so far. Incidentally, it’s well written too. I made some progress on my WIP, although I decided to cut the last 1000 words I penned during the week. I’m sure most writers have this problem when it comes to forcing yourself to cut something you worked on and thought was the right direction; you just don’t want to do it. How does that old saying go? The moving finger having writ, moves on. Nor all you piety or wit can erase but a single word of it. Something like that anyway. Despite piety and wit, I’ve scrapped thousands of words in the past. Last Monday evening at the CHINDI writers meeting, we met up with Jamie Dyer of South Waves radio (www.southwavesradio.co.uk). We’re hoping to strike up an ongoing connection with Jamie. His radio is devoted to the Arts, which includes the written word. Because it’s a local, on-line station, it will be an excellent platform for us as local writers, particularly as it broadcasts 24/7. We covered a lot of ground at the meeting, talking about promotions and what we have all been up to individually. There are so many different avenues and events to explore that you realise you could be out on the streets week in week out, trying to flog your books. Obviously it’s far better to get the readers to come to you, and to that end we have arranged a ‘Love to Read’ party in Chichester where we hope to attract a good gathering of interested book lovers who want to talk to authors about writing, reading, learning and generally getting a real kick or benefit from this type of gathering. Those of you who have looked on my website will know that I published a religious book called A Word in Your Ear (How God changed my retirement plans). I gave one to a neighbour of ours whose husband died recently. He was a retired minister. She came over last week and asked if she could buy two copies to pass on to her friends, one of whom is a visiting minister from USA. I think I’ve sold one since publication (not counting those I ordered for myself), so to be asked for two is something of a bonus. I gave the neighbour the copies; didn’t have the heart to charge her. We added fish to our fish tank this week. A dozen, Neon Tetras, six Guppies (one jumped out, so now we have five) and four Mollies. The tank is like a living picture against the wall. Hopefully I can keep it that way. I finally managed to crack the Ingram Spark problem. It was just my lack of knowledge with PhotoShop, but I got there in the end. Oh, not quite. When I downloaded the eProof, it only had the even page numbers at the bottom of the page. The Word doc was fine, but in converting to the PDF file with Open Office, the page numbers turned out wrong. It’s sorted now, so hopefully I’ll soon be holding the hardback version of my latest novel in my hands. Wish me luck!

Present Tense

October 1st. Christmas is coming and will soon be dominating our thoughts about what presents to buy friends and family. You could do no worse than thinking of buying those you love, or like enough, to make an author’s day and give books as presents. When me and my two brothers were youngsters, we almost always received books in our Christmas stocking. One aunt always made sure of that, and it was because of this that I developed a liking for the children’s classics. An album was always welcome, but I’m not talking of music; I’m talking about the bumper books that were published by the ‘Comic’ houses. Great stuff, great reads. When my book group, CHINDI, have a book sale, the children’s books always sell well, leaving thriller writers like me looking on enviously as the pile next to mine diminishes rapidly. You can find these books on the CHINDI website at www.cindi-authors.co.uk All our books are available through the website’s bookshop, so why not look in on us and have a think about Christmas? My own progress in finishing my latest novel has been hampered for all sorts of reasons, procrastination not being the least of them. I seem to be grinding to a halt, losing a couple of days and picking it up again. Like a lot of writers, I reach a sticking point and wonder how I’m going to get through it. I always manage to find some convincing way to move the story on, and sometimes manage to give the story a significant lift. I reached that point during the week when I had my main character, Marcus Blake, find the Samsung laptop that was essential to lead him to the killers of at least four people, but I had reached this key point too early and needed to delay the revelation. But then, what would I do for the next 20,000 words? After all, I still needed to round off other elements of the story that were essential in the whole jigsaw. I had almost been hoisted ‘by my own petard’. I changed direction, ensured the laptop had been wiped and then sent Marcus off in a different direction. But I left a little teaser, for the reader, which pointed the location of a memory stick on which all the data had been copied. This is like the needle in a haystack: where in the whole of England will Marcus find something as small as the memory stick? It’s great fun being a writer, but it does yer ‘ead in at times! The fish tank is looking good. Couple more days and I’ll be buying some fish. After that, it might get a bit tricky maintaining the right chemical balance and keeping the fish alive. I will be doing the hospital book talk next week. I’m looking forward to it. One of the joys of being a local author is that from time to time people ask you to talk about yourself. Once again I will be promoting the CHINDI group, but only for a wee while; most of the time it will be about me (and my books)! Still battling with my Ingram Spark file. It’s the jacket that’s causing the problem, only because I’m not too sure what I’m doing. I worked on it this morning using PhotoShop, and uploaded. It will be a couple of day before they let me know if I have it right. Fingers crossed. I’ve given up on Facebook ads. for now. The returns I was achieving were doing nothing significant. I reached my budget limit, which meant the ad. was stopped. I’ll go away and lick my wounds, work on my novel and try to have it ready for the New Year. Then maybe I can think about using FB ads. again. Wish me luck!

Half an eye on things that matter

24th Sept 2016 I sold another copy of my mini, autobiography, The Sum of my Life (The early years). Somebody must like me, or is curious about me. Two sales in a month mean that on a pro rata rate since I published the book it shouldn’t be too long before I hit the best seller status. Ah well, back to reality. I did very little writing during the week because of a cataract operation on Wednesday. Obviously it does kind of cramp your style a little. I managed about a thousand words, so I’m pleased with that. The fish tank turned up Thursday, so that was another distraction. Perhaps I should write a novella about the chap who bought a fish tank and tried to put it together with one eye. He ends up on the funny farm because it was rather like easy assembly IKEA stuff. It’s all about planning — wait a reasonable time before launching into the next venture . I’ve been in contact with a lady who does the hospital talk radio. She will be interviewing me in the near future with a kind of “Desert Island Discs” feel to the programme. Trying to tunnel into my past and come up with favourites proved difficult. Some of the stuff I enjoyed in my middle years were bands and musicians like Supertramp, Dire Straits, Jacques Loussier, Isao Tomita (who?), and many others. Oh, and the song “You are my Sunshine” by any artist: but that’s another story. The idea of the hospital talk is simply another venture by CHINDI authors into expanding the name into the local community by way of supporting charities and meeting the reading — and non-reading — public. We will be shadowing the #lovetoread campaign by the BBC and hope to encourage other book groups to do the same. We believe that the more, local authors get involved, so the public will begin to recognise that there are people like us who offer a credible alternative to the major publishing houses. We are also planning a Ghost Tour around Chichester. The idea is to take people round the historic places in the city, or any pubs that hold a macabre secret, and tell them why these places are haunted. It’s complete fiction of course, but that’s our raison d’etre. Some of the local Bognor Writers Group may also be involved. I have stopped my Facebook ad. for now. My results were not encouraging, so I’ll change the slant of the ad. and activate it again in the next couple of days. Something else I did which I believed might encourage my subscribers was to contact them for a chat and the link to my blog. The result was that twenty two unsubscribed. I read of other authors on the Web who hesitate to get in touch with their subscribers because this is how it usually ends. When you’re building your list by about one a day, losing that many represents most of your past month. But it was their choice, and I still have over 1100. I am still trying to upload my latest title, A Dangerous Game to Ingram Spark to take advantage of their latest, free offer. I had no problems with my earlier books, but somehow they have shifted the goalposts and it’s giving me a headache. Not to worry; I’ll get there in the end. Wish me luck!

Choosing the right direction

17th September 2016 I would like to say that I put in a good shift this week and added a few more thousand words to my WIP, but that isn’t the case and I have no excuses. Well, perhaps I do, but I’m probably kidding myself. The character I mentioned in last week’s blog who insists on dragging me away in a different direction is at it again. Perhaps I should listen to her and follow, but then I would lose the main thread of the story, which would cause me problems when it comes to re-writing the first draft and the subsequent edit. I expect a lot of writers would encourage me to change direction, while others would insist I stick to my guns and ignore her. We’ll see. My Facebook advert seems to be attracting people. I’m not sure that I’m selling more books because of it, but from time to time my Amazon Rankings shoot up from the doldrums where they usually nestle before sinking back down again. My FB page likes and views are showing healthy increases, so I must be doing something right. I’ll let the advert run for another few days before making changes. Often it’s a simple change of audience or interests that trigger higher sales. I received an e-mail from Ingram Spark offering a free deal for any new or existing title. I thought it would be nice to have my latest, self-published title, A Dangerous Game, published as a hardback to go with my other books. The whole process is vexing, even though I have published three titles with them. The interior file was rejected because it wasn’t PDF and the fonts were not embedded. I sorted that out and uploaded. The cover file was rejected because the image hadn’t been saved in Adobe Presets with flattened layers. I sorted that out too. Each time the message was that there were errors but they could be dealt with by IS. So where’s the next step? There isn’t one: there was no way on the page to continue the process, simply the instruction “back to files”. I had to resort to an e-mail to them. Still waiting for a reply. Met up with a lad called Jamie Dyer of http://www.SouthWavesRadio.co.uk for a coffee and a chat about linking the CHINDI author group with the station for a series of book reads/talks. Jamie will be coming to our next meeting to discuss the project and see if it’s viable or not. Hopefully we will be able to increase our reach through the station, which is broadcast 24/7 on the internet. On the domestic front I had my four monthly check-up with my cancer specialist and got the all-clear again. Next appointment in four months. Picked up our new car last Monday (KIA Venga auto). Smaller than my KIA Sportage, but comfortable, quiet and fun to drive. We went over to Dorset yesterday to visit our son and his wife. Took the dog and enjoyed a good day over there. Then we had to battle back along the M27, crawling for about an hour. After that we had a diversion through Chichester because of an accident on the by-pass. Too many cars on the road, that’s the trouble. Today, Saturday, we have my brother-in-law and his wife coming over for lunch. Should be good. No writing today then. Maybe tomorrow? And will that character keep dragging me away? Hope not. Wish me luck!

Ups, Downs and Little Moments

10th. Sept. 2016 Life is full of surprises, little ones I must admit, but they help to put a spring in your step and manage to counter those little disappointments that happen from time to time. I began advertising my three book trilogy on Facebook, but found the click rate quite high. I am forcing myself to wait about a week before addressing the problem, but I have managed to sell about twenty copies so far. Not ground-breaking, I know, but it’s a start. But that isn’t what put a smile on my face — someone has bought a copy of my book, The Sum of my Life (The early years). I only published the book as something of an experiment, never expecting anyone to want to read it, except my family, but they all received a copy from me anyway. I just hope that the person who bought the book will enjoy it. And maybe it will put a smile on their face too. I have started the book I was asked to review by an American writer. It isn’t my cup of tea, but I did promise the guy I would finish the book and post a review. Perhaps I’ll put a smile on his face. It’s a Western. I haven’t read many of those over the last fifty years. I can remember the last one I read; it was written by an author friend of mine, Nik Morton who writes thrillers as well. Before that it was Zane Grey many, many years ago. My WIP is nudging the 54000 word mark — well over half-way. But one of my characters keeps dragging me off in a direction I hadn’t planned on going, but in the process I came up with a little gem that will help me resolve part of the jigsaw at the end of the book. It shouldn’t be too difficult to fit in. I don’t think the reader will have seen it coming, and is one of those unexpected moments that leave the reader nodding in approval. I hope so anyway. The meeting of our book group last Monday was busy, busy: lots of ideas flowing around about promotion etc. I will be meeting a rep. from a fledgling radio show in the area that wants to promote reading among its listeners. Trouble is, there is no radio studio! Goodness knows how they operate, but until I’ve met the rep. on Wednesday, I won’t know. I will try to look at it as a young, new group trying to make headway into an already overcrowded market place, rather like independent, self-published writers. Perhaps we can promote each other and grow together. Only time will tell. Another addition coming to our house is a fish tank! We ordered one earlier this week. We get in about ten days. The Aquarium shop owner has warned me that if I do it right, it could be several weeks before I have a decent set-up. I figure that I should have it as pretty as a picture by Christmas. Perhaps I’ll have my first draft finished by then too. Wish me luck!

Turning Pages and Looking Ahead

September 3rd. 2016. I made a start on my September advertising campaign on Facebook, and hope to see some return on my investment as we make our way through the month. I intend setting up another advert, and will switch from one to the other, just to see which one is delivering the best. I have already sold at least one of my three book box sets since the initial launch. It puts a smile on my face so long as I don’t compare myself to some of my web colleagues on the Nick Stephenson and Mark Dawson Facebook groups. Whereas most of us are certainly struggling to make sense of FB advertising and targeting audiences etc., some writers report successes that absolutely blow you away. My current project is nearing the 50,000 word mark, and I believe I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. If I can keep my current average up, I should complete the first draft just before Christmas. It’s a long way behind my first, optimistic target of a launch during the autumn, but it is what it is. The results of the book stall at the Arundel Festival proved very good. We raised over £300 for Cancer Research and sold well over 100 books. It was a joint effort by the majority of the CHINDI group, but a word of thanks and praise must go to Carol Thomas (http://www.carol-thomas.co.uk) who did most of the work and sold plenty of her novel, Crazy Over You. You can check it out at her website. The results we achieved mean that we will probably want to do it again at next year’s festival. I received a request from an American author who I don’t know. He has asked me to review his eBook. It’s his first novel and not one that I would consider reading. But because it’s his first, it makes me think back to when I first published as an indie author and wanted to build up my reviews. I also thought back to when I had my first book published in 1980 and how chuffed I was at actually seeing my work in print. I have agreed to review this author’s book but have told him to be prepared for a harsh review, just in case I don’t like the book. I will not trash it though, because I made that mistake some months ago with a budding writer, and regretted it ever since. Hopefully it will be a good story and be well written. I have also been featured in a short interview on Alexandra Amor’s website. Alexandra is an established, Canadian writer. You can read the interview at http://alexandraamor.com/qa-with-thriller-author-michael-parker/. Last but not least, we popped into the KIA garage this morning to have another look at the car we’ve ordered. We were not expecting it until the end of October. The salesman had a big smile on his face when he told us the car would be here within a week. He hadn’t intended to tell us until Monday, but seeing as we walked into the show room, he thought it would be better to tell us, just to see the smile on our faces. What else? Well, I could win the lottery, I suppose. Wish me luck!

Supporting Cancer research and KIA car sales

August 27th 2016 I had an interesting week, what with a trip to the dentist to begin with and finishing by ordering a new car. In between I was at Arundel in West Sussex doing my shift on the CHINDI book stall supporting Cancer research in the UK as part of the Arundel festival. I also managed to publish my three book box set on Amazon, but have so far failed to get it right for Draft2Digital, but more of that later. Oh, and I did manage to write a bit. For the benefit of Carol, who I know reads this blog, I added another 500 words yesterday, just to make sure I’m ahead of you! I was able to resolve the formatting problem I had with the middle novel of my three book box set. To do that, I had to save the Word doc. in html as a web filtered document. This took me back to the early days of Kindle when it was necessary to go that route before converting to Kindle. Even then you had more work to do to get it right. Now, thankfully, Amazon convert the document automatically (unless you have an ancient document that their conversion software doesn’t like). With D2D it’s a whole new ball game. I already have my titles with them and have had no conversion problems that I know of, but for some reason the box set came out all wrong. I have been in touch with D2D who have pointed me in the right direction. Hopefully I’ll have it right within a couple of days. The book stall at Arundel has proved eventful and reasonably successful for the CHINDI group. We are raising money in support of Cancer Research UK and attracting some rewarding interest. About four of our authors are doing well. I have sold two paperbacks to date (three days to go), but I don’t look at it as a competition between us, simply a joint effort to promote our group and raise money for charity. The weather has been good; too hot much of the time for the poor book sellers, but it does lift your spirits. My spirits were lifted by a small result after e-mailing my subscribers with the news of my box set. I sold eleven that day (Kindle). That may not sound like a lot, but the three books are my lowest sellers, and I’m trying to persuade people that my stand alone, cross genre novels are really worth reading, hence the reason I lumped them together and launched them at a rock bottom price. I’ll be spending some money next month on a Facebook advert, and hopefully visitors to my website will be intrigued and persuaded by the offer. The car? Well, I had to finally admit to myself that my KIA Sportage was really too big for me and Pat, and it’s a devil of a car to park straight! My boy racer days are over and I have to be sensible, so we went to KIA this morning and ordered a sensible, Kia Venga automatic. Had a test drive and liked it immensely. Pat can actually see out of the front windscreen without having to stretch her neck, and the seat height for the two of us is just about right. We have to wait a while though because there are no Infra Red Venga automatics available, so it’s likely to be November before it turns up. Must look after my Sportage now until the deal is done. Wish me luck!

Boxing Clever? Maybe not.

August 20th. 2016 No, Tuppence didn’t win best puppy, but it didn’t appear to bother her. Why can’t people be more like dogs? While I was struggling through my manuscript, I thought it might be a good idea to put it on hold and knock out a box set for three of my least performing novels. After all, it would only take an afternoon to set the thing up and get it on KDP, so I thought. For a box set of books, they need to be one document, each book following on from the other. So I began to process of creating a file and loaded the first book in. It needed a little attention, but I made good progress and then loaded in my second book. Then the problem of inserting a “Table of Contents” reared its ugly head. Each time I searched for Chapter One, say, I ended up at the beginning of the document: right chapter, wrong book. Undaunted I loaded in the third story and, after a few adjustments, realised that one of them had the wrong indents. It would have been a bit time consuming to work through each page, so I binned it all and started again. So the next day I was at it again until I had it all working perfectly. Then came making up a box set image in PhotoShop. I can make a 3D image of a book, no problem, but to make a 3D box set image gets a little tricky. Sure, you can Google it, but there is always a problem, usually one of not being able to understand the wiz kid who is explaining how to do it at ninety miles an hour and using a programme that doesn’t quite match up to the latest version of PhotoShop. I gave up in the end, having decided to make an image of three books, all in 3D but stacked as though they were part of a box set. Three days later and it’s still a plan. I will get there eventually. I had coffee during the week with a fellow author, Rick Haynes. I’ve only known Rick briefly, but we have a lot in common, not the least that we come from the same area in London and went to the same speedway stadium in Somerton road, home of the Wimbledon Dons (defunct now). Same Pie & Mash shop? Yes, still there I hope, although it may be a kebab outlet or a halal butchers. Whatever it is, it won’t be serving bagels. It’s nice to spend some time reminiscing and talking about common ground. We chatted about books and writing of course, and Rick is well on his way to producing his second, full length fantasy novel to go with his short stories and “Drabbles” (no, I haven’t either!). I said earlier that I was struggling with my WIP. What author doesn’t? I have made it past the halfway mark and have a clearer idea of where I’m going with it. I just need to up my discipline levels and knuckle down. Next week I will be at the Arundel Festival for a couple of stints on our CHINDI book stall. We are donating a sum to charity as part of the fee, and giving something like a 20% cut of our sales to the cancer charity. At the moment it’s raining, there is a very strong wind blowing and the forecast doesn’t look too promising for now. The festival began today and will run for a week. At the time of writing, one of our authors has sold seven books (Dan Jones). Dan usually does sell well because his books are self-help based on his twenty years of working with children who have problems like Asperger’s Syndrome and Autism. He has released a particularly helpful book of bedtime stories for youngsters, which is receiving good reviews on Amazon (ASIN: B015HVQZV4). You can find out more about Dan and other members of the CHINDI group, plus buy their books at www.chindi-authors.co.uk. So for me next week it’s a trip to the dentist, two stints at Arundel, a family meet at Petworth (lovely place) and more work on my novel and the box set. Wish me luck!

Friends, fiction and puppy dogs

August 13th. 2016 I didn’t write last week’s blog because we had company over the weekend. Two friends of ours from Spain are on an extended holiday in UK and spent four days with us. Sometimes it’s right to stand back from your routines and see life from a different angle, and the four days with our friends was like a mini break for us. On the other hand, I didn’t get any writing done and missed writing this blog. Looking back over the past fortnight, I can say my Facebook advert has proved relatively successful, bringing me an extra 450 subscribers to my e-mail list. I now have over 1200 subscribers, which gives me an opportunity to develop something from that relationship. But where do I begin? I expect to be framing another FB advert later this month using ‘Lookalike’ audiences. Facebook consider a minimum of 1000 subscribers is necessary to make this kind of campaign work, so it will pay me to go down that route and see what transpires. My writing has picked up again and I have now passed the 40,000 word mark, which I consider to be over halfway. I’m way behind my schedule, which should have seen me finishing the first draft last month. I usually take a year to complete a book, and I’m beginning to wonder if I’ll have this one finished before 2017 arrives. I am at a kind of crossroads now, because I have to begin picking up the elements of the story and gathering in the sub-plots to bring it to a final and dramatic conclusion. I have compiled a list of bullet points as a kind of aide memoire so that I don’t leave out any pieces of the jigsaw. Although I write with MS Word, I copy everything into Scrivener, which I find extremely useful. It gives me the ability to search through my manuscript at a glance using the corkboard facility and the fact that every scene is recorded separately. I keep the bullet points in Scrivener so that I can refer to them from time to time. One danger of writing sub-plots into a story is that you can see how some of them would make a story on their own. I’m having that problem with Vereen, my main female character in the book. She is a single mother, on benefits, mixed race and likes marijuana. She buys her smokes (spliffs, zoots) on the estate where she lives. Her supplier gets murdered, which means her source has dried up. I can see how this could develop into a story on its own, but she is connected to the main male character, Marcus Blake, a private investigator who is trying to uncover the truth behind a cabinet minister’s apparent suicide. There is no direct link between Vereen and the cabinet minister except the country of their birth in the West Indies, but there is an element, a tenuous link at the moment, that draws the two of them to the arch criminal behind Vereen’s situation and that of the minister’s suicide. That’s why I need my bullet points: to keep track of all the little clues I keep putting in. What else is in the pipeline? A book stall at the Arundel Festival this month and a chance to sell a couple of paperbacks. The CHINDI group (www.chindi-authors.co.uk) have something planned for September and November, and ideas keep tumbling out at our regular monthly meetings. Tomorrow is the local dog show. We will be entering our puppy, Tuppence, into the “Best Puppy” class. We expect to win of course like all puppy owners do. But will Tuppence behave or make her mum look a fool as she tries to walk her round the show ring? Who knows, but it’s all in fun and in aid of cancer research — something close to my heart. Wish me luck!

Question Time at the Rox Music Festival

July 31st. 2016 Yesterday, five members of our CHINDI group and myself set up a bookstall at the Rox Music festival in Bognor Regis. It might sound odd, being as it was a music festival, but it worked. The six of us were there all day, and met some interesting people who stopped by the stall to chat. And we sold some books! It’s amazing what kind of questions we are asked. “Are you all authors?” was a common one. One visitor wanted to play a kind of one upmanship. “So where’s so and so then?” We’d never heard of him. Seemed he’s a local author but not a member of the CHINDI group. When we pointed out that our banner describes us a ‘CHINDI’, he got the message. And there are those who have written a book, but seem embarrassed to admit it. One woman told me she had 5000 books at home, and had no intention of adding more to the pile, so wasn’t buying. Oh, unless the price was £0.99 a book. Another lady got all excited because we were authors, as though we are hidden away, out of sight and only appear publicly on the odd occasion. I liked her because she bought one of my books. One chap listened to me for a while as I explained my novel, Past Imperfect, then decided to buy it (what a salesman!). When I told him the price, he said, “That’s cheap.” And so the day rolled on. It began with rain, fine drizzle for an hour or so, and then the sun came out and lifted out spirits. More people turned up at the festival and we got busier answering questions, handing out brochures, collecting sign-ups for our quarterly newsletter. From the profit and loss point of view, it wasn’t worth the effort, but from the point of view of making contact, it was extremely successful. And I think we all enjoyed ourselves, and I suspect we’ll seriously consider doing it again next year. On the domestic front, I haven’t written anything because I have been one degree under. It’s some kind of viral infection that doesn’t want to go away. I am improving slowly, day by day, but on the few occasions I have attempted to write, it’s been a non-starter; the brain won’t function. My Facebook advertising is progressing and picking up ten subscribers a day. Few more days to go before I finish the campaign, then it’s on to another FB advert. This time I think I will use my 1000 plus subscribers to get FB to select a ‘lookalike’ audience. FB recommends having at least 1000 subs to make the advert work effectively. Today, Pat and I went to a Golden Wedding celebration. It was over at a posh looking golf club near Chandlers Ford, just outside Southampton. The happy couple immediately introduced me as the ‘celebrated author’. Nice friends, eh? Perhaps next time I should take an armful of books with me. No more news now. Hopefully I’ll be able to add more words to my manuscript tomorrow and then be able to look ahead to seeing that light at the end of the tunnel. Wish me luck!

Upsides and downsides

July 23rd. 2016 The sun is shining here in Bognor and I have a lousy viral infection. Can’t write, don’t want to write, and know that as an author I should ignore the pain and get on with it. But it shouldn’t be too long before I’m back in the game once the antibiotics kick in. You get days like that, don’t you? But what has been happening on the upside is that I have passed the 1000 subscribers mark! Time for a celebration. The next target must be 2000, but that’s a long way off. It’s a bit scary, you know, having 1000 people out there. I feel that they are my responsibility, although I know they are not. But what is the point of trying to get a burgeoning list if there’s nothing there for them? I know of some writers who have thousands of subscribers, and it makes me wonder how they keep them faithful. I also wonder if the top writers have subscriber lists. I can’t imagine they do; their name is a big enough draw anyway. I said last week that I was thinking of tweaking my Facebook advert. I tried and failed miserably. No doubt I’ll have to wait until my brain is functioning properly and try again. Nest week, July 30th, six of us in our CHINDI group will be putting up a bookstall at the Rox Music Festival in Bognor. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it, having a bookstall while all that rock music is going on? But it’s all about being in the public eye and reminding people who you are and what you do. I would like to say that I expect to sell loads of books, but my experience tells me I will be lucky to sell a couple. But we try. Today, the Daily Mail published the result of its First Novel competition. A young woman won the prize with her first book. She beat the other five short list candidates. All of them were women! I started watching the American TV series, ‘Breaking Bad’ on Netflix this week. My eldest son has just finished the box set, said it was brilliant. I often find myself envying the writers of scripts like that (The Sopranos of course), and wonder what kind of thriller writers they are, if indeed they are writers. To produce something as clever as that, you need a good team around you. It puts our singular efforts into perspective, and I suppose most of us would like to see a film made of at least one of our books. I did manage to get my title, The Eagle’s Covenant into the hands of Judy Coppage some years ago. She was responsible for bringing Die Hard to the screen. She liked the book but thought the location would not be attractive to American audiences. The book is set in Germany and uses German police procedures throughout. I did live in hopes. And so we press on. Maybe one day I’ll hit the big time and see my work up there on the silver screen. Wish me luck!

Making eyes at the bigger prize.

July 16th. 2016 It has been a quiet week for me, with nothing to show in my diary except for one event that had nothing to do with writing. On Monday, my wife received a phone call at two o’clock from the local hospital in Chichester. Would she be available for her cataract operation that afternoon? Yes, I says (demonstrative!). So we’re there at three o’clock and home by six — cataract done. No time to worry, no long wait for the op. Now she can see through that eye almost perfectly and is looking forward to getting the other eye done. Marvellous. Back to the writing and promoting. My WIP progresses and I have reached 35,000 words. I’m making bullet points as I go along because there are key elements in the story that may not be too obvious to the reader, and I will need to remember where they are so I can pull them all in together at the end. I have twenty nine so far after sixty pages, which may seem a lot, but in some cases they are reminders about an incident that I will need to revisit. Naturally some of these will be dealt with before the denouement; they’ll have to otherwise I’ll end up with a kind of table of events and their results. But the plot thickens and there will be more bodies, of that I have no doubt. I mentioned my Facebook campaign in my previous post. So far it has been fairly successful with regard to sign-ups. My subscriber list now sits at a shade below 1000. When my campaign began eleven days ago, I had about 550 subscribers. That was an organic growth of about one a day from the beginning in March, last year. Now, after an initial surge, I am adding on average about 15 per day. I get no financial return on this because the subscribers are downloading The Devil’s Trinity for free, but I hope that in time they will begin buying some of my other titles and also letting their reader friends know what a spiffing writer I am! I haven’t looked in on Mark Dawson’s Facebook course for a few days, but will need to get back to it to see how much longer I should hold this campaign. I am tempted to start a new one with a couple of ads aimed at America and UK separately. Not sure yet. My low price promotion for Hell’s Gate yielded one sale last week. This is the problem with scattergun marketing; not aiming at the right targets or using the wrong weapon (promoter) to fire the shots. One of my titles sold forty six copies in four weeks, that’s without any promotion. So the poor attempt last week was down to — who or what, me or the choice of promoter? But the reality must be my standing as an author. If I’m good, more people will want to read my stuff. If I’m bad, they won’t. I believe my reviews stand up against the kind of reviews I’ve seen for other authors, so I must hope my lengthening subscribers list will eventually lead to a boost in sales. It’s simply a case of getting it right. Wish me luck!

The Word game and getting it out there.

July 10th. 2016. Marketing, promoting, meeting and lecturing: something of a book week really. I didn’t do any lecturing, except to our puppy. Monday was our CHINDI meeting. There’s always a lot said and done at these meetings, but last Monday was entertaining, watching two of our group trying to “live video chat” between their laptops. It worked after a fashion, but their skills, and ours, need polishing. It’s all to do with live chats with readers on our website and seeing how efficient we can become — make us look more professional. If we can crack this, it will be beneficial in the future. Four new members were introduced, some surprisingly successful in their writing careers. It was good to hear what they’ve done and know that it brings so much more to the group. Because they all had to introduce themselves, it was decided that the members there would do the same. I think it worked well. CHINDI were at it again on Wednesday at Chichester Library, giving a seminar on book indie publishing as part of the Chichester Literary Festival. There was a good turnout where four of our members gave a PowerPoint presentation on how to get your book published and the pitfalls to avoid. All this information is contained in the group’s excellent book: “Before You Press Publish”. The book is available on the website www.chindi-authors.co.uk I began a Facebook ad aimed at building my subscriber list. I’ve gone from a fairly slow, organic growth of about one or two a day to about twenty a day. I don’t know how long I’ll run the campaign for, but I have a budget limit and may leave it to run its course. From time to time I’ll tweak the audience, make a couple of changes and see if the result bombs or takes off. It can be an exciting, frustrating and head scratching experience. I also paid for a low key promotion and the results are — “low key”. Serves me right. I’m making slow progress with my novel. I have passed the 30,000 word mark, so that’s something to be pleased about. I sketched out a kind of ‘data flow’ diagram, putting in names, places and links, but it’s beginning to look more like an “Activity on the Node” rather than a clear picture of what I’m up to. And if that expression is not clear to you, don’t worry; it’s got nothing to do with writing. So what lies ahead? More writing for me of course and more training for Tuppence (our puppy). If I could get half of my writing discipline into the dog, I would be doing well. And today I must put the price of Hell’s Gate back to its pre-promotion price; I might sell a few. Oh, and I am reading through one of our group’s latest novel: The Front of the Wilderness Generation by Jeremy Good. Why not have a look on our CHINDI website and see what it’s about? So that’s it for another week. I wonder how many more words I will have added to my book, or how many more sign-ups? Watch this space and wish me luck.

Living in the world of make believe

July 2nd. 2016 Halfway through the year already and I’m only a third of the way through my latest novel. I had great plans, probably like many writers, and when I see Facebook posts from other writers who are churning out three or four books a year, I wonder where they get the time or stamina from. I am just nudging 30,000 words, which makes the ending seem an awful long way off. I’ve found my story splitting into two parts, but not part one followed by part two. Both halves could warrant a novel on their own, but I feel I would lose something of my uniqueness if I allowed that to happen. Am I unique? We all are one way or another. As a standalone writer, I believe I bring something to my readers that support my belief — an eclectic mix of genre, time, place and readability. I’ve just got to figure out how to sell them this idea of mine. My sales are still buoyant, but slipping away. I expect to be launching a Facebook ad later this month to boost my numbers. I can’t make up my mind whether to promote a box set, which seems to be all the rage at the moment, or continue advertising my website and the free book offer. At the moment I don’t know how to make a box set, but it won’t take long to find out. I expect I’ll be using Photoshop to do that. If I do go for the box set, I can still promote the fact that there is a free book available on the site. I did make a small change to my website yesterday. It was an update of the image I have there of my hardback books. I had to do that because the first image was of a pile of books, all mine, but two or more the same. Now they are a pile of nine different titles. Oh, and a mug with pens sticking out: gives it a kind of cheeky charm. This coming week I will be at our monthly, Chindi meeting. There’s always a lot to talk about. I could be asked about an item that appeared in the local magazine, Sussex Views. It was a promotional bit about me and the CHINDI group. I was trying to encourage wannabe writers to come out of their shell and join a local group; get their books published. On Thursday I’ll be at Chichester Library with the group where four of our writers will be giving a talk about writing and publishing. I’m not taking part in the lecture, but as a member of the group I can offer my books for sale at the end. And looking ahead to the end of July, I have just paid for a stall at the Rox Music Festival in Bognor. Six of us will be selling our books on that day. Should be fun. Hopefully we’ll sell a ton of books. On the domestic front, our grand-daughter has announced she is expecting. That will make three great grandchildren for us if she is only having one. Our puppy has finished the six week basic training at puppy school, although no-one has told her she was awarded a certificate; she’s still naughty. And I’m slowly getting on top of my gardening chores. By winter it should all be done. Wish me luck!

Vote, write, change.

June 25th. It’s been a momentous week, but not from a writing point of view. This week the British voted to leave the European Union. I voted for it so am pleased with the result. A lot of people are upset and some are quite bitter. Now the mud-slinging starts and some of the losers are making spiteful utterances. They claim we have divided Britain, but as they continue their vituperative tongue slashing, they forget they are acting like a spoilt child who wants the game played a different way; otherwise he/she will take their ball home. We certainly have a bumpy ride ahead. I’m often asked where I get the ideas for my stories. I say I get them from real life. The stories are all around, like fruit waiting to plucked from the trees. The actions of some of our senior politicians, and their sycophants are worth delving into, particularly if you are a political writer. Out will come the knives, political parties will break apart and new parties formed. So there’s a ton of stuff if you have a devious, political writing gift. It’s like the House of Cards all over again. Looking at my sales this week, I can see they are settling around five a day. This could be a good base from which to continue building, but it won’t happen on its own; I have to do something. I am working my way through the Mark Dawson Facebook course. It’s packed with information and advice. There is so much there that I need to go through it twice before I start advertising. If I get it right, and there’s no reason why I can’t, I should be able to build my subscribers list and consequently my average sales. Or I could sit and dream! Working on my latest book is giving me self-inflicted problems; I keep changing direction. Not too wildly, but enough to make me see where the story could improve if I am brave enough to go with my instincts. For example: one of my characters has been killed off already, although she figured prominently in the early part of the book. And I have weakened the character of another by making her a drug addict, although addict would be too strong a word because I need her to survive in a dramatic way, and not from going cold turkey. I have also been doing some research and found myself reading scientific papers that are written in a language that is quite alien to me. It’s all English by the way, but you know what these scientific types are like. One of the problems with this kind of research is that it’s necessary to wade through a lot of material in the hope you can unearth a little gem that can be used as the raison d’etre in the story. I’m nearly there. Perhaps I’ll award myself an honorary degree in science ‘stickability’. But whatever happens, wish me, and the British public, a lot of luck!

Great Expectations

June 18th. 2016 A lady came round to my house the other day and asked if she could buy a couple of my books. I was out but my wife was here, so the lady went away. I got back home about ten minutes later. It made me wonder if that was a kind of metaphor for my book writing life: not being in the right place at the right time. But she came back, so that’s alright then. She bought a couple of thrillers for her husband who needs dialysis three times a week. Makes you realise what side your bread is buttered. He has to be up at 5.30 on his dialysis days to be taken to the hospital. I know some writers get up at that time, but I certainly don’t. It’s nice to be reasonably fit and well compared to some people, so my writing and my books have to be seen as not that important. They are to me, but not in the context of the reality of life and our expectations. Talking of expectations; it’s something I am filled with now because of small results from my Facebook campaign and another idea I came up with during the week. The FB campaign has increased my visibility, although I had to make some changes to improve the cost effectiveness of my advert. It’s just about finished now, but I have seen some positive results. The other idea I came up with was to drop the price of my two, lowest selling books and let my subscribers know. The idea was to get a response and lift my sales of course. It worked and I sold 32 books the day following my e-mail. My Amazon rankings shot up too, which is always nice. Everything has calmed down now, but I am beginning to pull in more ‘likes’ for my Facebook author page. As I work my way through Mark Dawson’s course I want to rush ahead and get it finished so I can get cracking, but I know I have to be patient and make sure I know what I’m doing. I also have to make sure I don’t waste my money, which is quite easy with promotions. I will be preparing another ‘campaign’ next week and hope to see some improvement in my subscriber list. There’s an irony there, too: each time I contact my list, which is not very often, people unsubscribe. I think it’s a common enough thing. I know I do this to some of the companies and websites who send me e-mails regularly. In time I realise that I never respond so I unsubscribe. I guess the e-mails to my subscribers act in the same way, and trigger the negative response. Thankfully my list is still growing. I have made little progress with my latest book. It’s getting more and more difficult to fit the time in because of other distractions. The UEFA cup isn’t helping either. I have to ignore some football matches, which is unfortunate, but we suffer for our art, don’t we? Next week our CHINDI author group are launching our “Summer Reads” week. It will run from the 21st – 27th June. We will be discounting the print books in our on-line bookshop and running a writing competition as well as a Facebook chat with four authors. The discounted books will only be for UK only because of postage. The book I have offered has been reduced by a third as an example. The website for CHINDI is www.chindi-authors.co.uk if you want to pop in and have a look. We are keeping our fingers crossed for the success of this event, and hope we may be able to hold something like this each year. Naturally I hope readers will look in and choose several books, mine included! Wish me luck.

Ups and Downs

June 11th. 2016 Interesting week for a couple of reasons: progress with my WIP and our puppy. I have re-worked my novel, and am slowly putting together something that should make a reasonable mystery/thriller. There is still a long way to go of course, but the end of the year is my target. The Skype interview I mentioned in last week’s blog did take place, but not on the day we planned. The Canadian writer, Alexandra Amor (alexandraAmor.com), contacted me on the appointed day, but the transmission link was so poor, we had to abort the interview. However, Alexandra contacted me the following day and it was totally different: good reception and a twenty minute, uninterrupted interview. It will be released on YouTube and Alexandra’s website. I’ll be putting it up once I receive a copy. Although I am very pleased to be interviewed, it’s always too short. I can understand the need for brevity, but when I get the chance to talk about myself and my writing, I could gabble away for hours. Probably bore the pants of a lot of people. After the article about my latest book, A Dangerous Game, appeared in the local Press, I was contacted by a chap living locally. Like me he was ex RAF and had written a book. We met yesterday in the local pub for an hour and talked about our RAF careers, our civilian jobs and, of course, writing. He hasn’t published his book because he has no idea what to do. I was able to give him plenty of advice on that score. Hopefully, what he is armed with now will help him find a publisher or publish the book himself. I expect to be chatting with him again sometime. He’s about my age, so we have a good many years of life’s experience to fall back on. I am now a student of Mark Dawson’s Facebook advertising course, and hope to achieve much more than I could possibly achieve on my own. I did create a FB campaign last week before starting Mark’s course, but have since stopped it. It made sense to wait until I had learned more about the intricacies of the advertising game. One promotion I signed up for which isn’t bringing me any real sales, is a year’s link to BookGoSocial. There is a money back guarantee, which I will probably have to invoke, providing the BGS idea of success is not lower than mine. But in the three weeks of daily tweets (eleven or twelve a day), all retweeted, I sold fourteen copies of the promoted book. At the same time I sold eighty six copies of one of my titles over the same period with no promotion at all. So, it isn’t rocket science: the promotion isn’t working. My book will still be shown on their website somewhere, but I can’t see that making much difference. One surprise I had was the increase in my Facebook connections. The ‘insights’ into my Michael Parker page on FB showed an increase in reach figures of 21,127%. Sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? My post engagement went up by 100% too. This was because of my dalliance with FB advertising. But imagine how much better I could do with Mark Dawson’s advice. Hope it works. Wish me luck!

One eyed optimist

June 5th. 2016 Today I’m sitting in front on my computer just four hours after a cataract operation. My glasses are on crooked because of a patch over my ‘new’ eye, which makes reading and typing rather awkward, but I soldier on, ever the eternal optimist. By all accounts my eye should be back to normal very soon. Then I’ll have the other eye done to balance both eyes. What it will do for my writing is a different matter, apart from the physical aspect of focussing in on the PC screen and the keyboard. This past week has seen two events on my calendar. My author group, CHINDI, was part of the Worthing libraries “World of Words” literary festival, and on Tuesday we held a seminar at Worthing library about the steps involved in getting a book published. It was well received by those who turned up — about fifty people — and the feedback we received was encouraging. The following day was a book launch by Jim Morley, also of the group, for his latest novel, A Summer of Law and Love. I also had a piece about me published in the Chichester Observer. It was about my latest book, A Dangerous Game. I was surprised at the amount of column inches used for the article, and also a nice, big photo of me in my ‘killer’ pose as a thriller writer. Lovely stuff. I’m in the throes of considering a Facebook campaign, and thought I would target readers who enjoy standalone novels. I Googled ‘standalone’ writers, but was disappointed with the results. When I checked them out on Amazon, there was nothing that inspired me. If I want to aim for a high reader market, I need those who like my kind of books. I could stick to the best-selling thriller writers like Lee Child or David Baldacci, but find myself doubting the wisdom in doing that. More to the point though, is what kind of advertising campaign am I going to run, how much will I spend and for how long? At least with FB you can control the amount being spent, and also manipulate the advert if you think it might improve the click through rate. I have also been re-writing my current novel. I looked back through the 18000 words or so that I had written, and could see plenty of areas that needed improvement. It wasn’t too much of a problem, but now I can push on from there and drill down into my creative senses for a cracking read. I wish it was that easy. I’m looking forward to Wednesday, when I’ll be the subject of an interview on Skype. The interviewer will be Canadian author Alexandra Amor. It will be published on YouTube, and as a podcast. Naturally I will be putting it on my FB page and my website. Hopefully it will get a lot of people reading and watching. Might do me some good. Wish me luck!

Points of View

May 28th. 2016 Progress on my current novel is slow at the moment, giving me all sorts of problems, but at least they are self-inflicted. I’m in a kind of quandary about the way in which to develop the story. When I look at my other books, I see action and adventure, thrills and spills and one romance. Now I seem to have drifted into a kind of Dick Francis state of mind, and I’ve no wish to emulate that man — not that I could. I do remember during one interview I did some years ago that I said a writer should be able to write on any subject. Whether it would be any good or not is open to question, but the task should not be beyond a good author. So here I am being hoist with my own petard and struggling to write a convincing mystery. My promotion for The Devil’s Trinity has not achieved any significant sales in the last three weeks of the Twitter campaign. Compared to Roselli’s Gold, it hasn’t performed at all. It will still be listed on the promoter’s website until the end of the contracted period, but I doubt if it will have any impact now; the Twitter campaign is finished. Next month I’ll probably look at other ways of spending my money on advertising: it’s just a question of hitting the right one. I had a submission rejected by BookBub, but have put The Eagle’s Covenant up, see what happens. It’s unlikely to be accepted because the story takes place in Germany, which is not of much interest to the American market. My local book group, CHINDI, are preparing a “Summer Reads” promotion. This will be a week of tweets, FB posts, e-mails and just about anything we can do to make ourselves heard. The idea is to sell our printed books from our bookshop at a discounted price including P&P. The books will be signed and posted by each author. The week for the promotion is June 21st – June 26th. The campaign for this begins next week, and it’s up to us to push it as hard as we can. The irony is though that if we are too successful, each author will be saddled with the prospect of sending a mountain of books out. It would mean a few trips to the local post office. It will be on our website soon. http://www.chindi-authors.co.uk I did something earlier this week that I rarely do and that was to read a couple of one star reviews I received for one of my titles in Canada. I actually smiled while I was reading the criticism. I get the impression that some reviewers set out to be critical, nasty and dedicated to the role of putting writers in their places. At the end of these two reviews I expected to see marks out of ten, just like a poor exam paper. But never mind; I’ve had a host of terrific reviews for the same title. On the domestic front we have made some advances with the puppy. She’s getting cleaner and developing a bit of a character. She has been out to get used to people and traffic noises, and some more, wide open spaces. Still boisterous though, but a good girl. Last night we went to see the musical Hairspray. Pat enjoyed it, but I’m afraid my hearing doesn’t lend itself to the kind of production we watched. It was at our local theatre, which was packed. The cast worked hard, gave an honest performance. But I sat there for a while almost like one of those measly book reviewers I mentioned earlier. Then I snapped out of it; the musical was presented with all that was available, and there were far more people enjoying it than me. Mustn’t grumble. Now it’s back to work for another masterpiece. Wish me luck!

Big Oak Trees From Little Acorns Grow

May 21st. 2016 A mixed but busy week for me; I’m still writing and have reached about 18000 words. I keep getting writer’s block though which doesn’t help. I search around in my head for situations that leave a question mark over the end of a chapter or scene, and then find myself writing in my head and forgetting where I was going with the story. I have a character who is pushing for a bigger part. Sounds daft? Ask most writers if their characters do this for them, and I’m sure they’ll agree. This guy is called Blazer. He’s black, tall, good looking and likes to use ethnic slang when he’s talking to Vereen, the female ‘lead’. She’s black too. But I’ve got to keep Blazer in the background. I can’t say why because it would be a spoiler, but he will come good in the end. Meanwhile I have my other main man, Marcus, up to his neck in bodies and police and needs to find a way out. Unfortunately his other lady friend, Bunty (Vereen is his secretary), has muddied the water by involving someone who is distinctly unfriendly. The other creep in this story is Toby Abelard, a Haitian nightclub owner. Needless to say, he will figure big in the outcome, but I’m still light years away from filling in all the gaps. My book sales have steadied, and my rankings are not plummeting. They are going down, but I get small lifts in the graph. And I was pleasantly surprised to see half a dozen sales with CreateSpace, which means readers are buying my paperbacks. Not many, but it’s a start. I also had a tiny credit from Ingram Spark. And this month my Amazon royalties are coming from six different countries. Meanwhile my book, The Devil’s Trinity, is being heavily promoted by BooksGoSocial. The url they are tweeting (smarturl.it/tdet ) puts the inquiry straight to the Amazon page of that country. It’s a neat idea: saves a lot of clicking. I also had a small promotion yesterday with them for A Dangerous Game. I have no idea yet how effective that was, but no doubt the next day or so will tell me. On the home front it has been more about the puppy. She had her 2nd. Jab on Monday. On Wednesday we took her to puppy training (more for the owners than the dogs), and today she went out for her first walk. Not far, though — across to the shop. But for a little dog, the traffic and the people was all a bit confusing. We had to pick her up for a while. Naturally she’ll get used to all that and it won’t be long before she’s demanding to be taken out. Today is our sister-in-law, Carole’s 60th. birthday bash at a gastro pub. She’s paying! And today I had a pre-assessment at the eye hospital for an op. in two weeks’ time. So all in all, a lot done and more to look forward to. Wish me luck!

Making Progress with Tales and tails

May 14th. 2016 I’m still managing to keep my head above water in the book sales stakes, but only just. My averages fell away sharply over the latter part of April, but have picked up now, although my Amazon ranking is dropping slowly. I signed up for a promotion with BooksGoSocial (mentioned last week), and so far they are tweeting every day to eight different places. Part of the contract, I know, and it is something I would expect. The owner of BGS, Laurence O’Bryan, gets involved personally and put a video on the BGS Facebook page for members. I’ll have a better idea of my sales figures by the end of the month. So far I’m reasonably happy with the way things are going. My WIP has increased and I have now penned about 14,000 plus words. I keep changing the storyline in my head, but once I put the change down on paper, I see another way of moving the story forward. I know where I want to go, but my characters keep changing the plot, damn them. Good fun and in some ways, quite exciting. Hopefully this will affect the readers by some kind of literary osmosis. That means they won’t have a clue where I’m going with the story but are quite happy to hang on for the ride. That’s what I’m doing at the moment. Had a good meeting last week with the CHINDI group (www.chindi-authors.co.uk). There are a few events on the horizon to look forward to, which hopefully will lead to more public awareness of the group and the writers individually. I am still waiting for some publicity with the local, Chichester Observer about the book I released in January this year — A Dangerous Game. My contact journalist there has assured me that I will make it into the paper; it’s simply a case of when, not if. I have been approached by Alexandra Amor, a writer in Vancouver to take part in a live interview, on Skype, for a podcast. Naturally I have agreed. It’s now a case of arranging a time and date. Provisionally the interview will be early June. It should go live on her blog shortly after that. What pleases me about this kind of contact, which came through my website, is that someone on the other side of the world is interested enough in me and my writing to want to do this. On the domestic front, we are enjoying our puppy, Tuppence. Took her to a “Puppy Party” last Wednesday. She was a bit boisterous for the two, small Jack Russells in the group, so was put in with the big boys. Unfortunately the two Labrador puppies were too much for her, so she had to go back in with the small dogs again. I thought the vet might have thrown her out! Oh the shame. Next week she has her last jab, then another evening at the party. After that, well, walkies and an introduction to the grown up world. Wish me luck!

Fitting it all in

May 8th. 2016 After my successful promotion with BookBub and a comparatively successful promotion with Robin Reads, my average sales have now succumbed to their pre-promotion levels. At this point I had planned to use Facebook to get the balls back up in the air, so to speak. But instead of FB, I have gone with BooksgoSocial. This is a Dublin based group who have an impressive CV, but more importantly they have more of a personal contact with their authors. Plus they offer a 60 day, money back guarantee if sales don’t pick up. I won’t try to explain the details here, but suffice it to say that I had a few helpful exchanges of e-mails with Laurence O’Bryan, the head of the group, who put me on the right track with my advert. They will keep an eye on my sales and will let me know how I’m doing. Obviously it’s in their interests to achieve some kind of success for me. It won’t be big, but hopefully it will be effective. On the WIP, I managed to get up to 11500 words by the end of the week. I had hoped to do more, but my elder brother came for a couple of days, which meant a change of routine. It wasn’t a problem. It might have been had I been writing for a living; he probably wouldn’t have come. I’m making progress with the story, and never fail to be surprised at the number of times I see a change in the plot because of a situation into which I have written a character. Whether this makes for good, reliable plotting or not, I don’t know, but having penned ten, published novels to date, I can’t be doing too badly with that aspect of it. I see different things as I write; different situations. Then I end up in bed thinking about the way in which I can take the new development. I sometimes wake up having forgotten the new direction I thought I could go. I am a member of a few author forums on FB, and often see moans and groans about writing, sales, reviews, Amazon, on-line stores etc., but in the main they are all understandable complaints. But a few days ago, one of the authors posted a snarling complaint against the people she had relied on to help her sales at the launch of her latest book. She had put in a massive amount or work, day and night, even to the extent of claiming her and her husband had given up quality time with the children because of it. She was due to launch three more titles in a couple of months’ time and expected the manuscripts she had with traditional publishers to find a home. I felt sorry for her because she expected everything to fall into place because of the effort she had put in. What she forgets is that no-one has a right to be successful, even if they do work hard. In the writing game, as in many walks of life, hard work doesn’t guarantee success. It reminds me of a Michael Winner quote: “Luck is when opportunity and preparation come together”. So maybe that lady will have the luck eventually because she has put the work in. I hope so for her sake (and her peace of mind!). On the puppy front, our little girl is developing as all puppies do, and making us wonder why we wanted a dog. She’s a lovely, boisterous, amusing and annoying little girl, but we love her. Last Wednesday we took her to ‘Puppy Play’ at the vet’s which she enjoyed enormously. Same again this week. We are looking forward to the day after her second jab when we will be able to take her out for a walk. That means more exercise for me and Mrs. P. Musn’t grumble though because at my age I need all the exercise I can manage. Making gardens puppy proof isn’t the kind of exercise I like; it hurts too much. Wish me luck!

Taxing Times

April 30th. My weeks get filled with a puppy dog and storytelling, and I don’t need to tell you which one is winning. My wife said it’s easier having a baby because when you put them down, they stay there, unlike our Tuppence who decides when she wants peace and quiet. It’s rather like writing in a way: once you put the words down you expect them to stay there, but they have a habit of demanding your attention. And sometimes they bite you, metaphorically speaking, just like the new member of our family. Actually she nibbles with her small, pointed, needle sharp baby teeth. I am now at a crossroads; May is upon us and I expected to have a promotion in place on Facebook, but I haven’t made the effort yet. I suppose I’ve been hanging on to see how my book sales and rankings hold up after the success of BookBub. Although both figures have dropped, I am still in a better place than I was a couple of months ago. I reset my prices to $2.99, but that didn’t seem to affect the sales. My averages are slowly dropping, and that consistency hasn’t altered as a result of the price change. I pressed on with my WIP and have reached 9000 words. The 12000 I dumped are just a memory now, and I believe I have a better idea of where I’m going. I have found myself regarding this current novel as a mystery rather than a thriller, but I plan to have an element of tension in it which will help. I changed the location of the story too. When I began earlier this year, I could see the story switching to Chechnya. There was no strong reason for it — simply a whim, but on reflection I realised I was going nowhere. At the moment the new direction is Norfolk. Yes, a lot different from the Russian Federation State. So in the two weeks since I started, I have penned an average of 4500 words. If I could keep that rate up, I would expect the first draft to be finished by the end of September. Seems a bit ambitious, but I’ll give it a try. One other thing that has occupied my mind this week is my income tax return. Last year I was handed a bill which I didn’t expect and had to talk to the tax office. The mistake was mine and the bill was reduced considerably. So this time I’m being very careful, and I do get a small sense of satisfaction when I declare my royalties. They have increased compared to last year, and hopefully this will be the trend for a long while yet. Maybe one day I’ll earn enough to warrant employing an accountant. So what with the puppy, the writing and the tax man, you could say that this has been a taxing week for me. I’m sure there are a lot of people who would like to be in my position though. Oh, something else for me to look forward to: it’s the beginning of the Speedway World Championship tonight: first meeting in Poland with the world’s top sixteen riders. Terrific entertainment with brave young men battling it out on the shale where drama and injuries come thick and fast. I saw my first speedway match when I was about eight or nine in London. It was the Wimbledon Dons, and despite the many years I missed, I’ve always loved watching it. If I could apply the same discipline and hard work to my writing like those riders, I would have had a best-seller years ago. Next week, if I remain true to myself, I’ll pen another 4500 words, place an advert with Facebook, get my tax return right and have a puppy who knows how to bark when she wants to go outside to the loo! Wish me luck.

The Puppy is Winning at the Moment.

April 23rd. 2016 It’s been a hard week. Puppies don’t realise what a strain they put on their owners. I’ve been exercising muscles that have been dormant for ages. How do you make a garden puppy proof? A lot of hard work. How can you get work done when you are keeping an eye on the little one because your wife is having a well-deserved break from it all? Me and Tuppence fell asleep while I was on duty. Fortunately she woke me up before my wife came home. But I have managed to get some writing done. As readers of my blog know, I scrapped my last WIP of 12000 words and started again. So far I have managed to pen 3000 words, and have started my novel from a completely different perspective. I have an idea which way I want to go with this, and even how I might change the style a little. I suppose it’s all part of being a stand-alone author, having an “eclectic” mix of styles. Is that possible, I wonder? Usually you can rely on a series author to write the thriller or whatever genre in which they write, to be unchanging, but in my case I believe that different characters in different time settings mean there will be subtle changes. All I can hope is that I come up with the goods. My current work in progress is a resurrection of Marcus Blake from A Covert War. I haven’t changed him; I will be using him in a slightly different way, but hopefully he will be the same man I invented and have the same fighting skills and bags of luck (editorial licence comes into play here). I will also be using Sir Giles Cavendish, but in a lesser role than the one he occupied in A Covert War. Another female character I am introducing is a single mother called Vereen. She is a widow, young and of mixed race. She is also very attractive (what else?). I have looked up some gangsta slang too. Mustn’t get carried away with that though. I had a small promotion yesterday for North Slope. The book shot up to just over 6000 in the rankings out of 3 million books on Amazon. I wish it would stay there, but can’t expect that. I sold 67 copies yesterday, which is nice. I also e-mailed my subscribers to tell them of my change of plan with regard to my latest WIP and to ask them to mention me to their friends on social media. It would be a neat way of spreading my name around the social networks. I also raised my two, low priced books back to their original price of $2.99. Tomorrow I expect to put North Slope back there too. After that I’ll keep an eye on sales and think about some promotion on either Facebook or Google. Maybe I’ll get more work done on my book. Or in the garden. Wish me luck!

Puppies and Projects

April 16th. 2016 Two things happened this weekend which will help to re-order my life. Did I say ‘help’? We picked up our eight week old puppy, Tuppence, today and we are now experiencing a minor, soon to be major, disruption. At the moment she is fast asleep in a cardboard box. No, we didn’t force her to go in the box; she chose to do this herself despite the lovely soft bed we bought, the blankets in her cage where we thought she would feel safe, and the lap my wife offered her several times. Oh, and earlier she chose to sleep wrapped around the leg of the table. I had to rearrange things so I could have my lunch. Her toys are now scattered all over the floor, and she probably has no intention of clearing up after her. What was the other thing? I decided to bin the 12000 words of my latest book and start again. Day one, page one. I’ve never done that before and believe me, it’s hard. Why chuck out all that work? In my heart I knew I was going down the wrong path, but I had to do it. I now have to look at the end of the year before I can say the book will be finished. Perhaps I should set a November target so I can have it ready for the Christmas rush. Earlier this week I completed a revision of two book jackets. One was for A Covert War, and the other for my religious book, A Word in Your Ear. I received a copy of the first book today, and am satisfied with the result. The other one should be available in a couple of days. Something else changed too. Yesterday I discovered that Amazon had altered the zero price on The Eagle’s Covenant to $0.99. No reason given except that the book isn’t free anywhere else. I contacted them but they claim to reserve the discretionary right to do this. As someone on one of my author forums said earlier this week, “$0.99 is the new zero.” I must admit, it does seem pointless offering a book for free these days. Even at the new low price, there’s very little profit to be made. My sales rankings are tumbling a lot quicker now, which I expected, so next week I’ll be raising my prices on my two lowest priced books, and dropping North Slope to $0.99 for a promotion on the 22nd. After that I’ll get back to Facebook advertising again. May even have a shot at BookBub. So what’s on the horizon for me now? A lot of ‘walkies’ I expect, and more head scratching as I work on my latest thriller. Wish me luck!