Corragio amico mio (Courage my friend)

June 23^rd. 2018

Took a break from it all and went to Hever Castle last Wednesday. It was the home of the unfortunate Ann Boleyn, second wife of Henry V111. It was a lovely day; the house (castle) was amazing, and the gardens exceptional. It was well worth the visit and made me feel like writing historical novels rather than the stuff I write now. I slept like a log that night — must be my age. Pat said she slept well too. (Must be her age as well).

Decision time. How often do we have one of those? Mine crept up on me when I realised I needed professional help in tackling my abysmal marketing efforts. I know I’m not alone in that; I see several posts on my FB author forums by authors wondering why they can’t sell books despite spending a lot of money on advertising, and I’m no exception. I thought I had improved my efforts with BookBub ads, but after changing the ad at the beginning of the month, my sales on Amazon came to a halt and those on D2D nosedived. I began tweaking the ad, but without any change in results. I rewrote the short, sixteen word blurb and dropped the price twice. Still nothing. So I figured I needed help. It all began with Dave Chesson and his KDP Rocket course.

The Rocket course is about finding the keywords for the Amazon ads. I mentioned it in last week’s blog. But at the end of the course were several links to other places, no doubt Dave Chesson has affiliate links to these. This one — the one that intrigued me — was by a group called Book ads. They take on your promotion for a fee (naturally), and the AMS campaigns are run by a guy called Brian Berni. There are others involved in the group too, but Brian becomes an editor added to your AMS dashboard. He then runs the ads. Brian lives in Italy and worked in the Vatican archives for seven years (I wonder if he ever saw the light of day?). He’s American (I think). Well, he sounds American. But the rub, and this was the point at which I hesitated for a long while, was that I was required to agree to run ten ads consecutively. I pay a monthly fee, which I can cancel at any time, and must be prepared to spend $10 a day. It doesn’t take much maths to see that it could result in a spend of $300 or more a month if there are no book sales. Hence the hesitation. I counted it all on my fingers and toes, figured out how I could keep it secret from Pat (I told her in the end anyway), bit the bullet and signed up. I’ll let you know next week how the ads are progressing, if at all. The most I could expect to spend on AMS by the way is about $6 or $7 a day.

I was back in the book design business too. I received a proof copy of my re-edited book, The Devil’s Trinity, and could see I needed to do a minor tweak to the jacket. The book came yesterday and still needed attention, so I uploaded another, revised jacket (I’m talking about very minor changes here) and hope to see it in a couple of days.

July is almost upon us and I have the Littlehampton Festival Book talk and the Chichester Festival Book talk to look forward to. There’s also a small festival here on our estate where I’ll be manning a table hoping to sell my books for a charitable cause. Mind you, if I don’t have any success with Book Ads and AMS advertising, I think the charity I’ll be thinking of will be closer to home. Wish me luck!

Trying not to get diverted

June 16^th. 2018

This week began with a Chindi Zoom meeting. Nine of us tuned in and managed to talk about a great deal. We were able to chat to John Hall who was beginning his ‘Author of the Week’ slot during which time we feature him and his book Under the Yew Tree. You can read about John and his novel at http://www.chindi-authors.co.uk/john-hall/. When we have these Zoom meetings, they can be quite amusing: rather like a bunch of amateurs producing a TV show. But we enjoy having them and it helps to bring faces together and to catch up in the flesh so to speak.

I said the week began with a meeting, but in fact it

began with a visit from our No.3 great grandson, Orin. We love having him here, even though we have to make our home “baby friendly”. All the TV remotes have to be put up high, the telephone as well. He likes pushing buttons and even sees the small speakers on the TV sound bar as a source of button pushing joy. It was a lovely day, so we were able to have some time with him in the garden giving him a chance to play splash in the blow-up pool. It was a sunny day, so he was suitably covered in sun cream.

Of course, none of this was helping me with my dedication to learning more about promotion and marketing; not that I was too unhappy about that. But I have been busy studying Dave Chesson’s course on AMS keywords etc. I have the benefit of Mark Dawson’s excellent course on the subject, but I find Chesson’s course a little more forensic, and therefore a little more complicated. It’s strange how other experts come across with their advice. Dave Chesson recommended an ebook on AMS advertising by Brian D. Meeks. I’m just over half-way through the book and wonder why I’m even trying; it’s designed to frighten you off AMS altogether, I’m sure of it. Yes, all the information is there, but as a “student”, it’s clear to me that the teacher thinks the subject is a doddle. Nevertheless I shall pick the bones out of the advice, spend my money and watch my sales rocket. Really? Oh, where am I? Oh yes, back to reality — my learning curve. My sales have bottomed on Amazon, which means I need to persevere and hope the information sinks in.

During the week I received an email via my website from a reader who enjoyed my book, Past Imperfect. He wanted a free copy of my giveaway title, The Devil’s Trinity, but failed to realise it was an ebook and not a paperback. I checked the wording on my website and could see how someone could make the mistake in not realising it was only an ebook, and it was for my subscription list. Anyway, I have decided to send him a copy. I’ve changed the wording now on my front page. Incidentally, this is what he said about the book: I think Past Imperfect was one of the best, if not, the best of the books I have ever read. I like the way you tied the characters from the past to the current, very clever. 

My other diversion this week (and the next four) is, of course, the World Cup. What else can I say other than “Come on England!” Wish me luck!

Talking the Talk

June 9^th. 2018

I missed our Chindi author of the week spot last week for some reason, so I want to make amends for that now. I would like to introduce Susanne Haywood who is a cat lover. She joined Chindi recently but has been active in the literary world, penning such articles as the one at https://katzenworld.co.uk/2018/06/04/so-youve-decided-to-adopt-a-human/. Naturally we wish Susanne all the best with her furry friends and hope she’ll enjoy plenty of books sales.

Last Wednesday was a ‘book’ day for me. Will Patching came to see me in the morning, bringing the book I’d won in an on-line competition. I could say that Will came all the way from Thailand to hand me the book, but that would be the imaginative writer in me adding a little editorial licence to the truth. As a matter of fact, Will was visiting UK and staying in Bognor. His brother lives just round the corner from me, so it meant an enjoyable couple of hours talking about books. And Will had a great deal of useful information which he passed on. I’ve already acted on that and joined up with Dave Chesson of Kindlepreneur (www.kindlepreneur.com). Will has used it quite successfully. Hopefully it will help me with my promotion and marketing, and I suspect that in the long run I’ll make gains I can see, but how much and how many depends largely upon the effort and time I’m prepared to put into it.

Later in the day I was at The Steam packet pub in Littlehampton where I joined up with two Chindi authors, Isabella Muir and Helen Christmas, for a talk on writing crime novels. Supporting us there were Patricia Feinberg Stoner and Rosemary Noble. Patricia organised the evening, and Rosemary has been responsible for organising several events for the Littlehampton festival next month. The evening event at The Steam Packet was a kind of practice for us all. At first I thought we would struggle as we were put into a corner, but the whole pub paid attention as we got into our stride. The Landlady, Arletta, was a star; she looked after us really well and even bought a book off each of us. I’m sure the Chindi group will be invited back again. I hope so.

Last week I put my boxset into Kindle Select. I did this because I’ve sold about one in the two years the box set has been available. So imagine my surprise when I saw that within a day or so, I’d got just short of 1400 page reads. You can see the box set at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01KYAOZZG. It’s called Michael Parker’s First Three Novels. The set is cheap to buy at £4.75 anyway, but I think I’ve made more from those pages than I have with the set sitting there for the last couple of years.

As a result of meeting up with Will Patching and being pointed in a sensible direction (more discipline), and also because of watching David Penny on an SPF podcast, I’ve decided to put my WIP on the back burner until I am reasonably happy with my promotion and marketing efforts. I still have a long way to go, but hopefully I’ll see the light at the end of that very long tunnel. Who knows? Wish me luck!

'Hims' ancient and modern. Recalling the past and planning the future.

June 2^nd 2018

Well, I made it to my old school. Forty seven of us turned up. We were given stick-on name tags with our year. Mine was 1952. It meant I could reminisce with the other two old boys who were the same year as me. We didn’t know each other, which was to be expected. One of them became a scientist, while the other became a banker and went on to head up a global company as a Sales Executive in America. The oldest ‘old boy’ had 1948 on his label. The school was almost unrecognisable inside, whereas the frontage was exactly as I remembered it. Being a listed building, it couldn’t be changed. The school was founded by Sir Walter St. John in 1700. It was known as ‘Sinjuns’, but now it is St. Thomas’s. It’s in Battersea High Street, which has been smartened up since I saw it last. The visit brought back some happy memories, and a recall of funny stories. One chap spent some time looking for the initials he had carved on an oak panel in the school hall. He found more than his own.

I also picked up on my WIP: something that has been annoying me for some time. I can see a little more clearly now that other stuff has gone away. I’m reasonably happy with the way it’s going, but I still see some problems ahead. With luck I’ll have it finished by the end of the year.

I’m having fun and games republishing The Devil’s Trinity on Ingram Spark. Just when you think you’ve got it cracked, you receive that dreaded email to say there’s an error. My initial problem was in wanting to reduce the size, but I’d forgotten about the ISBN. Reducing the size meant starting again basically with a new ISBN. Fortunately I still have some which I purchased from Nielsen a few years ago. I will also publish the book on CreateSpace and upload a new eBook file for KDP.

Next week, Wednesday, I’ll be meeting the author, Will Patching. I’m looking forward to that. It’s always good to speak to writers who understand what it means to be a self-published author with all the difficulties that go with it; perhaps he can give me a few tips. That evening I’ll be at Littlehampton at The Steam Packet with fellow Chindi authors Isabella Muir and Helen Christmas. Rosemary Noble will be in control there so we don’t get carried away and spend too much time talking about ourselves! If you’re anywhere near the pub, why not drop in?

My book sales increased a little during last month. I think it’s down to my ads on BookBub. I will be putting up a new ad for June, but will use another title: possibly North Slope. I’m a bit reluctant to drop the price, but sometimes it’s inevitable if you want sales to increase. What I will have to do is see how the sales go with the current price of £2.99 and if it’s sluggish, then the price will have to come down. I am at least seeing sales with seven of my titles, which is good.

I’ve got a lot going on this month what with appointments, events, family visits etc., it’s a wonder I have any time to write and to catch up on the latest news and advice about promotion and marketing. Once I’ve sorted the puzzle out, I should soar. Wish me luck!