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!