Memories

September 15^th. 2018

I often start with how the week began. Today I have to say the week began sadly with the news that my younger brother, Arthur, had died. It wasn’t unexpected; he had been ill for some time, but nevertheless, it was a shock. And now I have memories, not of a 75 year-old man, but me and my little brother when we were kids and the antics we got up to. I’ve known him for 75 years — longer than I’ve known my wife — and I could probably write a book about our life as young kids and how we changed when we grew up and became part of a world that was never something we thought of; too busy being children I suppose. And as a writer of action thrillers where I can dispense savage justice and kill my characters with impunity, death is simply ink on the paper. But we all know that the reality is different, and I will mourn my brother’s passing like most siblings would.

This being the week before we fly out to Australia meant there was a lot to do, eyes to dot and tees to cross, and with very little thought to writing. My WIP remains untouched, and will remain so until we get back, but I did embark on something unexpected. One of the Chindi group pointed out that there was nowhere to leave a comment on my blog page: something I’d never even thought of. So I decided I would have a go. I followed the WIX help section and managed to get a comment box at the bottom of my blog page. So far so good, but when I checked the live site, my comments box was in Spanish! It took me ages to figure out why. It turned out that I had used the Facebook comment box, and it was that which defaulted to Spanish. I checked the settings on my FB account: all were set to English, but because I opened my account when we lived in Spain, some gremlin in there decided it couldn’t relinquish a little bit of the Español.

I am still plugging away at ads with BookBub and AMS. There’s still no distinctive edge to either of them, although AMS do seem to be giving me a slightly better return than BB. My ROI is negative, and I suppose it will always be that way until I master the art of promotion. Whenever I see podcasts and read posts about the way forward, I know there is nothing new for me; I’ve been there, done that and got the Tee shirt, but never the prize of sumptuous sales figures. I still watch and read in case some little nugget is dropped that I can pick up and run with.

The Parker household is low at the moment, because the dog company Barking Mad has picked up our Tuppence. They’ve taken her away to her new home for four weeks. Now we can get on with our packing and missing her.

There probably won’t be a blog post from me while we’re away, although I might try to put some photos up on Facebook. But before I sign off, I just want to dedicate this post to my little brother, Arthur. R.I.P.

Getting some results

September 9^th. 2018

Lots of things happened this week because we are getting closer to our holiday. A trip to the travel agent, the clothes shop, the boutique and the dentist — not all for me of course. But that’s preparation and making sure you have the priorities right. I did get some new Tee shirts, I must admit, but I was pressurised into buying them. (Must be a soft touch). There seems to be so much to do and so much to think about that it leaves little room for writing. I received an email from Paula at BookHub giving me the names of those lucky winners who had chosen my book The Devil’s Trinity as their choice of book, which left me with little option but to type out a congratulatory message along with the download link. I’ve asked all those who won (about 25 people) to put a review up on Amazon for me. What will be more interesting, I think, is how many of those who won will send me a thank you email or even put up a review.

I am still hanging in there with the AMS ads. Last month my average sales combined with D2D were just over one a day. This month started in a similar fashion, but a slight improvement has lifted my average to two a day. I hope it will continue to improve at that rate and give me a good return on my investment. At the moment I’m losing money, but because it’s my hobby, I’m prepared to accept it. While we’re away I will keep a close eye on my AMS ads in case they get out of hand. To date, over three weeks, I have spent about $29, so I’m not exactly breaking the bank.

I also got back to my WIP with a vengeance almost. I introduced a character which I believe has changed the whole shape of the plot, and given me something of a lift. In fact the character was already part of the story, but not involved in any of it and there was no plan to change that. Then suddenly it all kicked in, and now I can see a definite outline bringing the plot to a conclusion which had been open-ended and bugging me. Once we’re back from OZ, I might be able to get on with some serious writing.

I also contacted one of our Chindi group about designing a cover for one of my current titles. It was a kind of ‘toe in the water’ approach really. I have done my own covers using Photoshop, but am now thinking of seeing how much of an improvement a professionally designed cover will do when it comes to promotion and marketing. It will need a lot of sales to cover the cost of the work, I know, but it will be a subjective experiment. If I like the result (of the sales, not the artwork) I would be tempted to go the whole hog for my current WIP when it’s finally ready.

Yesterday we spent some time with our No.3 son and his wife in Dorset. Walked with the dogs through the woods and parkland, had home-made pizzas for lunch (our boy is an excellent cook) and generally chilled out before tackling the mad, crazy A27 drive home. Fortunately the drive was uneventful, which make a change.

Getting closer now. One week today and we’ll be airborne. Then no more WIP for a while, enjoy some sightseeing round Dubai, OZ and Singapore. Spend my royalties. Dig into my savings and come home to the news that some film impresario wants to make a film of my book (anyone!). Wish me luck!

Dedication

September 1^st. 2018

Dedication is something most of us are familiar with, particularly when it comes to writing books. I often read of authors in the book groups of which I’m a member on Facebook that demonstrate a high degree of dedication in achieving significant sales of their work each month. Last week I watched Adam Croft being interviewed. He maxed out his credit cards, his wife’s and even asked members of his family to help him spend more. He became a best-selling indie author (one million books sold) on Amazon; so for him it worked. I don’t think I have that kind of dedication though.

Today I witnessed another kind of dedication at the Guagemaster exhibition of model railways over at Ford in West Sussex. The layouts were spectacular, intricate and painstakingly assembled, lovingly detailed and worth more than you could probably put a price on. I spoke to one chap who had a French railway layout, correct in every detail. He told me that you needed to get everything right, and it can only be done by research and looking for the proper rolling stock, vehicles, figurines and model buildings. That struck a chord with me because of the parallel nature of our hobbies: creating something almost real through dedication, research and application. The largest display at the exhibition had twenty trains running at the same time. I tried counting them but they kept disappearing through tunnels and stopping at stations as other trains swept by. I had to ask in the end.

But there is another kind of dedication, one I came across years ago that probably dwarfs everything I’ve spoken about here. When I was a young man in the Royal Air Force, I was at a training camp in a post-graduate billet. There were eight of us in a twenty-man billet. In the single bunk where the NCO i/c usually slept was a Malaysian lad. He was a Junior Technician and not part of our group. We used to see him from time to time going through to the ablutions and we’d nod, naturally. But one day I got a chance to talk to him. I asked him where he was from. He told me Kuala Lumpa. I thought he would have lived in England so I asked if he joined the RAF over there in Malaya. He said no, that he had to come to England to do that. I thought about my time in the Merchant navy when the ship I was on did the Far East trips taking Empire Builders (Diplomatic Corps) out, and bringing immigrants back. I wondered if he had been on one of those trips. He said no. I asked him if he flew over. He said, “No — I cycled”. Cycled! It took him three months. He wanted to join the RAF and that was the only way he could afford to get here. I suppose at that time I might have felt a little superior to him because of all the immigrants I’d seen in my time on those runs and my young age: probably thought because I was British I had some kind of right to feel a little elevated. But this lad’s dedication had a telling affect on me; it left me almost gasping in shock and complete admiration. It taught me a great deal about strength of mind and determination.

So when I think about my own efforts at writing, promotion, marketing and aiming high, I wonder if I really do possess what it takes to get to the top. Has that young Malaysian youth’s dedication taught me anything? I suppose I can take comfort in the fact that I have written twelve full length novels, been traditionally published and am still at it. I hope so. Wish me luck!