Busywigs

April 28^th. 2018

A full week for me, one way or another. I have more or less finished messing around with my website, and now have something which I feel is more presentable and “clickable” (if that’s the right word). Monday evening I went to a talk in Chichester on “The Harrier and the Cold War” given by Group Captain Jock Heron — a must for me because of our family association with the aeroplane. Wednesday it was the cinema and “The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society”. An absolute gem of a film I thought, and although I’ve read the book, I’ve downloaded the Kindle copy and have started reading it. Thursday evening was our church AGM: never an exciting time, but needs to be done. During the week I submitted one of my titles to two different outfits: Mark Dawson’s ‘Unputdownable’ imprint, and Joffe Books (rhymes with toffee). And today I went along to see my Grand-daughter, Gemma dressed up as a Unicorn to entertain the children in the ‘Kids in the Park’ event. Oh, and I began a complete rewrite of my WIP.

Yes, my website. What I needed to achieve was something easier on the eye with an instant view of my books. On each one there is a link to sample chapters, and from there, if the reader is interested, he or she can access the book on all the on-line sites where it’s available. Took a lot of editing and teeth gnashing, but I got there in the end.

The Harrier talk was a must because I was stationed at RAF Wildenrath in Germany in the early seventies where two Harrier squadrons were based. Our boys were all young then, but eventually Terry, our No.2 son went on to become a Harrier pilot, and two of our boys, John and Stephen, worked as Harrier technicians on the same squadrons for several years.

The ‘Guernsey’ film was a must for me too. It’s the kind of book I would love to have written. Quite emotional, well acted and a real treat, particularly for authors. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth thinking about.

Yes, AGMs are usually dull affairs, although some can be boisterous, I know, but this was a church do where we are all very civilised (on the surface). Perhaps I should write a book about it.

The Kids in the Park was held in Chichester. My grand-daughter made me wear a silly unicorn wig and took a photograph of me. It’s on Facebook already.

The reason I’ve submitted one of my titles to two different outfits is simply because students of Mark Dawson (and I am one), were invited to try their luck with his imprint. Costs will be met for those books selected, and there will only be about three or four chosen. With Joffe Books, the invitation came during an SPF podcast in which Jasper Joffe explained his vision and what he can do for Indie authors (if your book is chosen). Whoever is lucky enough to be picked up by either of these two, they will be in good hands and can expect a significant increase in sales.

Now, my WIP. Yes, I have begun again. This will be the second time I’ve done this since the beginning of the year. It currently stands at 90,000 words, but I know I was going nowhere with it, and I had to be honest with myself and admit it needs a major rethink. So, it’s back to the drawing board and, fingers crossed, I will get it finished. Wish me luck!

Purrfect

April 21^st. 2018

Today I want to introduce you to my author colleague and friend, Carol Thomas. Carol is a member and director of the Chindi book group, and has been very proactive in helping other authors in our group with advice on promotion and marketing. Well, today is Carol’s turn to be talked about because she is our ‘Author of the Week’. Carol’s latest book, The Purrfect Pet Sitter (a romantic comedy), will be released by Ruby Fiction on April 24^th, and is available at the pre-order price of £0.99/$0.99. The link is  http://tinyurl.com/TPPS-AmazonUk. Carol’s first book, Crazy Over You, was released in 2015 and was well received in the indie world of self-publishing. Her second novel, Finding a Friend, was released last year. Carol’s ability as a writer is reflected in her dedication to the art of self-publishing and the results she achieves in book reviews and social media comments. You can learn more about Carol on her author page on Amazon or on our Chindi website at http://www.chindi-authors.co.uk. Naturally we at Chindi wish Carol all the best with her latest book.

Well, my Dragon software arrived last week and is back at Amazon having proved to be perfectly useless. It took ninety minutes to complete the software download which presaged the problems to come; Dragon claim it takes “several minutes”. When I tried to use the microphone supplied with the software, it couldn’t be ‘heard’. I tried several times but to no avail. I then tried my own headphones with a built in USB microphone, but that was no better. I then tried loading it on to my laptop. I achieved marginal success, but once I tried the ‘dictation’ trial process, it couldn’t understand what I was saying even though it had accepted my voice through the recognition process. In the end I uninstalled the software from my computers and returned it to Amazon. So, no dictation for me.

Last week I began messing around with my website home page, using the ‘hidden’ facility to build a suitable page. I looked at other successful writers’ websites to get some idea of how I felt mine should look, but they are all so different. I found Joanna Penn’s home page to look a bit dated, but she is a successful writer, entrepreneur and literary coach, so it can’t be that much of a problem. Strangely though, it was the one I felt mine should look like. Well, sort of, if you know what I mean. One problem I came up against is that I needed to edit the 3D copies of my books. I use Photoshop for this and find the process straightforward (took some practice), but not all the edits went the same way; I needed some innovative creativity to come up with two that refused to be changed. And then I discovered that I didn’t have a copy of the full jacket of my thriller, The Devil’s Trinity, only the front view. Not only that, when I decided to look on Createspace to find the file I’d used for the print version, I discovered I hadn’t used CS; my print version was with Ingram Spark. And I don’t have a copy to hand, so I’ve ordered one from IS and will have to use that innovative creativity I mentioned to come up with a 3D jacket.

On the domestic front, I still have the damning cough, but was well enough to enjoy a picnic on the beach with our Grand-daughter, Gemma and her son, Orin — our No.3 great grandson — at Worthing. It was a lovely day. Tuppence came too and it was more fun and relaxing than trying to coax Dragon software into life and to think of 3D book jackets. Next week though, it’s back to the drawing board. Wish me luck!

Rattle of a Simple Man

April 14^th. 2018

This week it’s been the London Book Fair. No, I didn’t go, but I might be persuaded next year. I went a couple of years ago, on my own, and felt like a fish out of water. It put me in mind of the film, Rattle of a Simple Man, starring Harry H. Corbett. Here was a guy who had never been to the big city, having lived the provincial, quiet life. His big day was the FA Cup Final and he’d gone with the supporters on a coach. The similarity has to end there because his character ends up with a prostitute and falls in love with her. He was way out of his depth, and that is where the analogy comes in: I was way out of my depth, my comfort zone, wandering round the vast emporium that is LBF. All those sharply dressed publishers and literary agents, book talks, demonstrations and what have you absolutely fazed me. I’d never been to anything like that, and even though I was a traditionally published author, I knew I wasn’t ready for it. Next year though, I may go up and perhaps persuade someone to go with me: another author maybe.

I ordered my Dragon software in the end. I gave it a lot of thought, and have a project on hand that I might develop. It’s a manuscript I wrote about fifty years ago, complete rubbish, but nonetheless, it’s a story. So rather than retyping, which could take a great deal of effort and teeth gnashing, I thought I could use Dragon to dictate the MS and edit it once the job was done. I know I could also use it to help me through the writer’s block minefield I’m experiencing with my current WIP.

Another project I must give a great deal of thought to is the redesigning of my website. I was chatting to my son, John, yesterday about it and lamenting the fact that I lack the necessary skills. He suggested I look at a designer who tackled his wife’s website. The problem I have is that because my books are stand-alone novels, I can’t come up with a suitable front page. Looking at other author websites, it’s usually fairly clear in which genre they write, and what the reader can expect to find between the pages. When I think of a suitable front page for me, I see an elephant (Hell’s Gate), a submarine (Shadow of the Wolf), an oil rig (North Slope), and so on for the other jackets. It would take quite an impressive montage to cover all my stuff, so it leaves my mind in a fizz and really without a clue. And I’m not convinced the casual visitor to my website would be impressed either.

On the domestic front, I’m still battling with a chest infection, Four more days before the antibiotics are finished. It really knocks me back and takes away all the desire to write. This afternoon we are taking our Tuppence to the Poodle parlour for her tri-monthly trim. She always looks lovely when she comes out. Perhaps I should write about dogs and put Tuppence on the front page of my website. Might help to sell more books. Wish me luck!

Wipeout

April 7^th. 2018

This week has been the kind I need to forget and move on. Last week I went down with a bug that more or less wiped me out on Monday and Tuesday. Struggled to the doc on Wednesday and now, Saturday, I am only just about getting close to normal. It was also the week I started with Amazon ads. I stopped my BB ads for this reason, but had great expectations with AMS. Nothing has happened! I have totalled just over 500 impressions, one click and no sales. I’m trialling two ads: one on sponsored keywords, the other on sponsored product. Fortunately I’ve only spent sixteen cents! Obviously there’s something radically wrong with my creative marketing process. And my D2D sales have slumped to one.

I watched an interesting SPF podcast yesterday. It was David Stansbie of The Creative Corporation talking about web design. His impressive list of clients include Katie Perry, Pink Floyd and J.K.Rowling’s alter ego Robert Galbraith. Oh, and Mark Dawson of course, which was why David was featured on the podcast. I’m in no position to call Mr. Stansbie up and ask him to redesign my site (and goodness knows it’s needed), but he spoke a lot of sense when highlighting the errors some designers and their clients make when choosing how to present their site. It struck a chord with me because of my CV as a stand-alone author not having a clue how to encourage potential readers to get the best out of my site by pointing them towards the books of mine they might like. Do I go with my Thrillers? My Historical novel? My Romance? The irony of this, for me anyway, is that David Stansbie started life as a graphic designer long before Web design became a major player. Years ago, when I was in the RAF, I was often asked to design posters for events, all of which would be hand drawn and coloured. No, I wasn’t a graphic designer, but how I wish I could bring something of my earlier skills to modern web design. Well, mine anyway.

My WIP has taken a battering, and is now in the ‘screwed up paper on the floor stage’. There’s plenty of it, too! It looks like it will be a major re-write with a lot of culling going into it. Perhaps I should look at the Dragon software again. Nick Stephenson has included a blog about this very item to his weekly newsletter. It makes interesting reading, but it won’t complete my book, nor give me inspiration; only I can do that.

I think I lost control of my Smartphone during the week; perhaps it was something I said. But I am beginning to fear for the sanity of our future generation. So many aspects of our lives are now being controlled by technology in such a way that I can only see technology developing itself at the speed it believes is essential for progress. Advances in mobile phone technology, medical science, robotics and drones will force us all to do the will of the corporation that holds the power in its hands. Facebook and Google have already shown a lead in this, and I believe that one day all our books will be written by robots: authors will become dinosaurs — antediluvian creatures that had a mind of their own but were wiped out by modern science. Perhaps my Smart phone has already done that to me, and I don’t even know. I must try and write! Wish me luck!