Mere technicalities

March 17^th. 2018

St. Patrick’s Day today, and it always reminds me that I should have been called Patrick. Seventy six years ago today, my mother was sitting in a field on a sunny day, surrounded by daffodils at a cottage hospital in Cuckfield, West Sussex, expecting me, knowing that she would call me Patrick because of our Irish heritage (she never mentioned what she would do if I turned out to be a girl). But I arrived the following day, the 18^th., so in a fit of pique she called me Michael. It’s Irish I suppose. My wife’s name is Pat, so it’s a blessing really, otherwise we’d have been known as ‘Pat & Pat’. So to all my Irish readers — Happy St. Patrick’s Day. He was English by the way, so I’m told.

It’s always good to read of success stories in the Indie publishing world. Yesterday I watched the podcast on Mark Dawson’s SPF group with Earnest Dempsey as the star. It often transpires that these success stories are down to hard work, perseverance and the essential element, talent. Dempsey (who is known as Ernie) said it was necessary to find a balance between writing and marketing. He described it like keeping spinning plates rotating on their poles while writing at the same time. I’ve always said it’s necessary to keep the balls in the air, which is a similar analogy. I have already been thinking of trying my luck with Amazon Ads, but still keeping my BookBub ads live. I can see a moderate growth with BB, but Amazon isn’t keeping pace, which is probably not surprising considering the vast number of writers competing for readers; so I need to keep those plates spinning and the balls flying.

I haven’t touched my WIP this week. Just looking at my social diary (i.e., my calendar), there have been too many opportunities to procrastinate, and in the world of procrastination, I think I would top the best-seller list. Or should that be the ‘best time-wasters’ list?

I began the task of updating my profile on D2D by making an author page. You can see it at https://www.books2read.com/ap/xog1mx/Michael-Parker. Any comments? It looks like D2D are making big strides in attracting indie writers to use their services, which doesn’t surprise me because of the positive comments I’ve seen on various author forums.

I had to set up a new landing page on MailChimp last week because, for some reason, my usual one was no longer available. I used MC’s FAQ page for an answer, but I needn’t have bothered. As a result of making a new page, I brought my two subscriber lists together, which brought the numbers down to 1200. According to MC’s figures, I lost 400 subs. I’m not too bothered about that, because I can always use Facebook Lead generation ads if I wanted to increase it. I’ll let it grow organically for a while, although there is a caveat to that: I have started an email promotion campaign with Books Go Social, which means I need to send an email to my subs each week or so with a recommended thriller. The trouble is, every time I send something to them, I get about ten unsubscribes, so I could end up losing more than I’m gaining. I hope not. Anyway, we’ll see. Wish me luck!