In the Mix

January 29th. 2017 Bit of a bumpy week for me with regard to promotion and marketing. I had a Bookbub promotion, which failed to achieve the results I had hoped for. I have just about covered the cost of my investment, but on the bright side I have been able to reach more than 1000 new readers across the world. I can see the results showing up in India, Canada and Australia, which is like a small, but growing market for me. The other kind of bumpy promotion is getting my head into gear with respect to a new venture: I have teamed up with author Paula Wynne and agreed to work on a project through her website in return for some valuable, online promotion for a year. This isn’t about just getting my books on a website, but becoming part of a successful writer’s team in the hope that it will open more doors for me. I find it difficult to put my writing head aside and dive into marketing. Paula asked for “savvy social media” partners. Savvy? Me? Well, I’m about to find out. The other, developing side of the on-line presence is the new direction in which my author group, CHINDI, is going. After a board meeting (sounds important), the changes we thought would be beneficial were put to the members. So far the reaction has been good. The first change comes tomorrow evening when, instead of the usual, formal monthly meeting of the members, we’ll be having a social chat. Those of us who can make it will be meeting up at a restaurant in Chichester for a coffee and natter about what we are up to and how we see the group progressing. I’m hoping to be able to spend a bit of time with Helen Christmas and Christine Hammacot; two authors who will be with me for a talk/seminar during the Chichester Literary Festival. We’ll be talking about writing a crime/mystery novel: the whole aspect from creation to publication. Should be fun. My Kindle Scout submission seems to be floundering. I spent the first week in the ‘Hot & Trending’ list, but now my ranking there has fallen away. It’s all about putting yourself about on-line and asking (begging) for votes. The problem is: where do you find those people who are not your usual followers? I paid for a small Fiverr.com advert in which the deal was three days of tweeting to something like 150,000 followers. Sounds impressive, but I do have my reservations about the impact Twitter has unless you’re a celebrity. As I’m talking about it, why not vote if you haven’t already done so? https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1EC59ZYJLQ07G. Once the Kindle Scout submission has finished, I will publish the book and do a bit of advertising. I think by that statement it is clear that I don’t expect an Amazon offer to publish the book. Still got my fingers crossed though. My promotion for The Devil’s Trinity at £/$0.99 is likely to run for another day or so, and then the price will go up. I’ll be pushing that too, but I think it has just about run its course. I have received my first instruction from Paula and need to concentrate on what is expected of me, and in return experience the value of this kind of cross-promotion. Wish me luck!

Days to remember

January 22nd. 2107 There were a few dates I had to remember over the past week: my wife’s birthday, our 57th. wedding anniversary, my older brother’s birthday and my older sister’s birthday. Oh, and there was something else that happened: Donald Trump got sworn in as the 45th. United States President. He’s the only one of that lot who could write a book and guarantee it becoming a best-seller. He wouldn’t need any marketing, and promotion would be a cinch. How nice it would be if I could say that, but as all budding writers know: that isn’t the case. The latest excitement to hit the author forums is “Cross-promotion”. It’s been brewing for a few months now. I’m planning to take advantage of it (if that’s the right word) and get stuck in to this new wave of book selling. But like all these monthly flavours that come along, I expect this to get swamped and bore readers to death eventually. That won’t stop me jumping on the bandwagon while it’s rolling though; hopefully I will get some good results from it. My Kindle Scout campaign slumped for a few days. My book was “Hot” for a while, and then it kind of disappeared without trace. Now it’s hot again. I need to look around for more promotion opportunities that won’t break the bank and get more votes. And if you haven’t voted yet, please click the link for me and vote. https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1EC59ZYJLQ07G I’ve been toying around with an idea for my next book. I tend to wait for inspiration before embarking on any new story, but sadly it isn’t happening yet. I still get amazed and a little envious of those writers who can knock out a novel in a few months. I’m a slow writer generally, and expect to take up to a year to complete a novel, but in this day and age of digital publishing, speed could be something of a bonus — except for one caveat: quality. I would probably lose any quality I might possess in my writing if I tried to complete a novel in less than four months, and that would be a bad thing. Another event that took place during the week was our Chindi book group meeting, only with a slight difference: it was yours truly and two other writers, Christopher Joyce and Carol Thomas, meeting as directors of the group’s official company (CIC), to formulate a new structure and explore the way forward. We have also re-jigged the logo CHINDI to mean “Celebrating and helping independent writers”. The idea was to drop the parochial stance of the group and become more global. This is so we can reach out to other writers who want help and advice, and who are willing to offer the same in return for us already established within the group. We managed to come up with a ten point plan that hopefully will be challenging as well as rewarding for us all. I dropped the price of The Devil’s Trinity (£0.99/$0.99) today in readiness for my Bookbub promotion on Wednesday. Wish me luck!

Great Expectations

January 14th. 2017 Looking at my diary I can see January will eventually prove to be a busy month. I submitted my latest book, Where the Wicked Dwell to Kindle Scout. The campaign to attract nominations will run until February 11th. After that, KS will decide whether to offer me a publishing deal. But I need nominations, so how about clicking on the link and nominating my book? That’s all you have to do. https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1EC59ZYJLQ07G. Whether I’ll stand a chance or not remains to be seen. KS (Amazon) say it’s all about reader nominations, but I suspect they look at the author profile and make a judgement on the prospect of selling enough ebooks to make a profit. Makes sense anyway. But if I received thousands of nominations, it would be a no-brainer for them. One of the downsides to searching for votes by the way is that any e-mail to my subscribers results in about ten people unsubscribing. It’s disappointing but according to the author forums I’m on, it happens. Next month I might go back to Facebook advertising and look for more subscribers I have my BookBub promotion coming up on January 25th, which will mean the chance of good sales and high rankings, but not without some effort on my part. So to keep the balls in the air, I have paid for an ENT promotion three days after the BB promo. If sales remain buoyant, I’ll keep the low price until I see things slowing down. There are one or two other irons I have in the fire, but nothing guaranteed. One of the problems authors face after finishing a book is that spell when the brain refuses to switch on to a new story. I know that not all writers suffer that problem, but I certainly do. I find myself imagining scenarios that are a complete waste of time, knowing that I have to be patient and wait until something drops into my lap. There’s plenty of scope in the daily news of course: alleged Russian hacking into the Presidential elections, and the suggestion that a British MI6 agent has gone into hiding because of his involvement. All good John le Carré stuff, but not Michael Parker I’m afraid. I received some good comments from some of my beta readers about my book. They can’t be translated into book reviews because the book isn’t for sale yet. Reviews are like a double-edged sword though: they can be helpful or damaging. I read many complaints on the author forums about bad reviews and how horrible they are, but we all know it goes with the territory. I’m reading an ebook at the moment that I’m struggling with, but the reviews on Amazon are excellent. It has a few one and two star reviews, but generally the average is about 4.5, so I guess it must be me! I saw a piece of advice the other day about naming my blog. Well, embedded in my Wix site is the name “Readawhile”. It was one I used when I first started blogging a few years ago. So now it appears on my website under that name. Sounds better than ‘blog’ don’t you think? On the domestic front — today is my wife’s birthday (her age is filed under secret). Lots of cards and good wishes have come her way though. Next week we celebrate our 57th wedding anniversary, so we’ll be looking for some way to celebrate that. On Monday our Cockapoo, Tuppence, is going to spend an away day with a husband and wife team of dog-sitters. It’s a trial; see how they all get on. Me and Pat will probably find something to do that day, although we have the plumbers here all day doing a power flush on the central heating system, so may need to stay close in case we are needed. Hope not. So, a lot to look forward to and to hope for. Oh, in case you forgot: https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1EC59ZYJLQ07G Wish me luck!

Kindle Scout

My latest book, Where the Wicked Dwell, is now in the Kindle Scout campaign. This means I'll be asking (pleading?) for votes. It would be a great help if you could click the following link and vote for my book. Many, many thanks! https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1EC59ZYJLQ07G

Hopes and Aspirations

January 7th. 2017 So as the New Year rolls in and our resolutions disappear, what are we looking forward to for 2017? I know the kind of things I would like to happen, and excluding the usual hopes for peace in the world and the disappearance of poverty and hunger, I look to material hopes. By this I mean something measureable, something tangible; and although I can’t physically touch my book sales figures, I would certainly hope to see a huge jump over my last year’s figures. I’m starting off with a Bookbub promotion for my title, The Devil’s Trinity. This will be on January 25th. I’ve scheduled a promotion on eReader News Today on the 28th. hopefully to take advantage of a lift in my rankings, which I can reasonably expect to happen. I will also look to Facebook ads. and hopefully link the benefits of the Bookbub promotion and encourage readers to dive in. Another hope is that the launch of my latest book will be successful. The title is Where the Wicked Dwell. I’m planning to submit that to Kindle Scout. It means a delay of 30 days before I know if it has been accepted. The chances are slim because so much of the acceptance is down to the number of votes I can pick up from my followers and anyone else who wants to vote for me. If Amazon rejects it, I’ll prepare some kind of promotion myself and see what develops. I have contacted two digital publishing houses — tongue in cheek really — and wonder if I’ll hear from them. Having been through the mill so many times before Amazon came along, I know exactly what it’s like chasing agents and publishers: I don’t expect anything to come of it. I have also made a date with another writer (Debbie Mack) for a live interview on Skype. This will take place in March. I will also be doing a cross promotion with best-selling author, Paula Wynn that month too. So, a few irons in the fire, all in the hope that I will see my books rise in the rankings and bring me more sales: something ‘tangible’. As a new director of the CHINDI book group company (CIC), I will be meeting with my fellow directors next week for a brainstorming session. Sounds posh, I know, but this is simply four of us, who have to meet annually to comply with Company House rules etc. We’ll be looking at ways to improve the input our group have into the area around Chichester and hopefully beyond. We also need to come up with ideas that will benefit the whole group. There are some very good writers in CHINDI, including our award winning writer, Jane Cable. You can learn more about us and our books at www.chindi-authors.co.uk On the domestic front, we are planning a short trip to Spain at Easter (seats booked already) to say farewell to our previous Pastor, Roy Davies, at Torrevieja Christian Fellowship. The church is having a bash for Roy and his wife, Wendy. They are a lovely couple and have done such a tremendous job for the fellowship. It will nice to see them again, however briefly, and wish them all the best for their retirement. And, of course, we have to think of what we will be doing with our Cockapoo, Tuppence, while we’re away. So now begins the search for a suitable dog-sitting service. We’ve contacted one already and hopefully we won’t have to look much further. Now you know what I have lined up for the early part of the year. I hope readers of this blog will have a lot to look forward to, and will enjoy whatever comes up. I wish you all the best of luck!