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!

Falling averages but still selling

April 9th. 2016 As a writer, words interest me. I came across one yesterday on one of the author forums I use. The word is “Pantser”. No, me neither. Anyway, the word appeared in response to a post about the author Lee Child declaring that he doesn’t plan his books; they just happen. Whatever sentence he writes, he isn’t sure how the next line will develop, something like that. Sounds like fun, but I don’t believe it is strictly true; Lee Child has a wealth of knowledge on firearms, security services, military protocol, etc. so much so that he must have some idea of where he’s going with his story. Not that it matters, because he is a clever writer. I have followed this unwritten rule for a number of years, i.e. making it up as I go along, and that means I am a “Pantser”. It’s a made-up word alluding to the phrase ‘by the seat of your pants’. It’s often applied to flying where a pilot is flying an aeroplane for the first time and doesn’t really know what he’s doing. Sounds like a lot of writers to me. So there you have it: another word to add to my lexicon of useless words. I haven’t had a particularly fruitful week in terms of writing and increasing my word count. No excuses except to say that I have had other priorities to deal with. I do manage to get the time though to check my book sales and rankings, of course. I am currently averaging twenty sales per day, and can see it won’t be too long before I put my prices back up and think seriously about another Facebook promotion. I’ve just finished uploading my files for the paperback copy of A Covert War. Took a few attempts with Createspace, but I got there in the end. Once I have a copy in my hand I’ll be able to see if it’s OK or needs work. My next paperback will be The Boy from Berlin. Hopefully I’ll be able to come up with a stunning design for the cover. I had a lovely comment from a friend of ours: lady by the name of Pauline who we have known for several years. She told me that my book, A Dangerous Game, had to be made into a film. How I wish, eh? I get comments like that from time to time. Makes me feel good about my work. My latest WIP is currently at the 12000 word mark. I’m getting demotivated by my own sluggishness, otherwise known as procrastination. I have no-one else to blame but myself. Now the sun is beginning to show more often, it won’t be long before I’m tackling the garden. Perhaps I should write a book about gardening. Last Monday was the monthly meeting of the CHINDI group. I always enjoy these meetings, and often get to pick up some useful information. I was asked about my BookBub results and received a huge round of applause when I read out the results. One of our new members came up to me and asked if he could meet me for a drink so I could advise him about advertising. Someone had referred to me as the ‘advertising genius’. I had to disabuse him of that idea though. Anyway, we are meeting up next week for a coffee and a chat. Should be good. On the subject of helping others with their writing, I have been feeling sorry lately for a wannabe writer who asked me to look at his work (I mentioned him in my last blog). He came to me for advice after my Book Talk. I didn’t like the idea at all but agreed to have a quick look. Well, I’m afraid my response to his work could have destroyed him, because I was particularly candid (to use his word in response to my criticism). I now wonder if I should have let him down gently and pointed out his errors in a more accommodating fashion. But the truth is, there is no way of delivering a measured response if you want to hide the truth. Hopefully the man will come to understand that although the criticism was harsh, it was genuine. But I can’t help feeling sorry for him. It made up my mind that I will not agree to any requests for an opinion anymore. So, what’s next? More writing; a trip to the dentist; a run to Gatwick airport and a trip to see our puppy, Tuppence. We can’t have her for another ten days, but fortunately she’s only half an hour’s drive up the road. I must also figure out another advert for Facebook too. Wish me luck!

Not enough hours in the day.

April 4th. 2016 I’m late this week, simply because of too much to do. Went to a wedding on Saturday, which interfered with my usual Saturday treat of watching football. Sunday was a visit from our grand-daughter, Gemma (lovely), and then a trip across to see our puppy, Tuppence. Such a busy life I lead! Blogging took a back seat for a while. I have kept an eye on my book sales and rankings, and can now see the tail end of the BookBub promotion results. I’m really pleased with the way it went, and I am still managing to sell about twenty books a day. Sometime this week I need to get some advertising sorted: probably on Facebook, and hope I can keep the balls in the air that way. Earlier this week I received a request from a gentleman who had attended my Book Talk on March 19th. He asked me if I would have a look at his competition entry: a synopsis of his book and the first 5000 words. My immediate reaction was one of dismay because I don’t like getting requests of this nature. There was a deadline for the competition, so I agreed, reluctantly, to have a quick look. Unfortunately the MS fell well below the standards necessary to be considered ready for publication with the need for substantial editing. Plus there was very little knowledge in how to tell a story. Sadly I had to tell the man the truth. He thanked me for my “candid” reply, which I think was a euphemism for “brutal”, and I suspect he was really disappointed both in me and in the answer I gave. But is there a right way? Do we have to let wannabe writers down gently, or tell them the bald truth? I have experienced rejections and criticisms, and they are not nice; they are a fact of writing life. I believe it’s right to tell the truth, and if the writer can’t take it, that’s tough; it’s a tough old world out there. I did encourage him to submit his entry because none of us know what the judges are looking for. Timing is important in life, wouldn’t you agree? This morning, twenty minutes before I was due to take two people to Gatwick airport, I received a call from the local hospital asking me if I could go in today for my cataract operation. I had to say no, of course, but it could have all been over by now, had it not been for the airport run. I took umbrage last week over an article by an Amazon writer who had sold 2 million books on Amazon. She was pumped up about the fourteen hours a day she spends on promotion and marketing, slammed the traditional publishing houses and basically inferred we should all be knocking ourselves out like that if we wanted to sell books successfully. You could almost see the halo over her head on the publicity photo (head shot, smiling, slightly turned) as she beamed these little gems our way. I don’t like people coming on strong like that to wannabe writers, believing they should all follow the same path. When I wrote my first novel, North Slope, I was working in Saudi Arabia, twelve hour shifts seven days a week followed by twelve hour night shifts seven nights a week, Where’s the room for another fourteen hour shift each day in that lot? There must be tens of thousands of writers working a full day before coming home to write. Perhaps that’s where they are going wrong — working instead of writing. Tonight is the monthly meeting of the CHINDI group. I always look forward to these meetings. We all get the chance to talk about our work and have brain storming sessions about the best way to promote ourselves collectively. It’s good fun and often we learn some very useful stuff about promotion and marketing, but not about squashing it all into a fourteen hour day. Wish me luck!