Pulling back and stepping down

November 16^th. 2019

The caption says it all: this will be my last blog post. It isn’t a decision I’ve come to suddenly; the thought has been in my mind for a while, no doubt because of the uncertainty with Pat. We saw the haematologist last Thursday, hoping to hear she could go back on chemo, but unfortunately she isn’t well enough. There are two problems, and one needs to be tackled before they can think about chemo, so the doctor has put Pat on steroids in the hope she’ll regain the strength she needs to fight the cancer. The underlying message though was not helpful.

Spending time in front of my computer while Pat sits alone in the front room, just so I can maintain an on-line presence, seems selfish and unnecessary, so that’s one of the reasons I’m packing it in.  I stopped writing some time ago even though I still retain the desire to write, but the inclination is no longer there. I cannot see me being creative in any way for some considerable time either. At the moment I am committed to a multi campaign on Amazon ads, and will need to check in on that from time to time. Once the ads have run there course, I may not bother to put them up again.

 I started this blog about seven years ago while living in Spain. The idea was to engage with people and, hopefully, establish a kind of rapport with them. I know that my blog is read all over the world, but the number of readers never rose above about one hundred. My family and friends read my weekly posting, and I know of two ladies in America who became on-line friends after Pat and I met them on an Alaskan cruise who read it. That’s Mary Beth and Julia (in case you two are reading this). So although I know some of my readers will be disappointed, I just cannot summon up the will to compose a chatty column each weak and fill it with good news, little jokes and bonhomie.

There is really nothing else for me to say now, other than to thank all of you who have taken the time to comment on my posts, and to wish you all the happiest of Thanksgiving (for my American friends) and a Happy Christmas to all those who choose to celebrate our Christian Festival. And for those who are neither one nor the other, thanks anyway.

                                                                                                                                    Mick.

Climbing mountains

9^th. November 2019

The week began poorly for Pat, but she has made good progress now. Her situation prompted me to make two decisions which resulted in a chest X-Ray on Tuesday and then a doctor’s appointment for another problem on Thursday. She is now on a different antibiotic tablet because her infection was resistant to the earlier one prescribed. I constantly find myself in the invidious position of having to diagnose Pat’s problems and hope I get them right. I have now added a finger oxygen monitor to the paraphernalia I use to keep an eye on her. I’ll be wearing scrubs next!

On Wednesday evening I went along to the Chindi Christmas Book launch at the Swan Hotel in Arundel. You can see the book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Feast-Christmas-Stories-Unwrap-Sussex-ebook/dp/B07WSGPKMP/refhttps://www.amazon.co.uk/Feast-Christmas-Stories-Unwrap-Sussex-ebook/dp/B07WSGPKMP/ref. As I mentioned in my post last week, I had agreed to take Beryl Kingston along. Beryl was our celebrity guest: an author who has sold over a million books no less. I knew Beryl had contributed a short story to the book about growing up in war-torn London, so I asked her about that and about living in the big city during the war (me too). It turns out we were both brought up within couple of miles of each other: Beryl in Tooting and me in Wandsworth. I lived in the Garret Lane which ran from Wandsworth to Tooting (about two miles away). So as you can imagine, we got on like a house on fire. Beryl is almost 90 years of age and has a tremendously strong spirit for her age. We spent the car journey talking about London and the book world, and I was also able to catch up with her during the book launch once she’d finished ‘mingling’. Quite an evening for me; not because I had the pleasure of Beryl’s company, but also to be able to indulge myself in the world of writing and talking to like-minded people. Great evening. I had a friend from church come in that evening to look after Pat, which gave me the opportunity to spend a few hours out of the house.

My reading this week is a crime novel by Neil Lancaster called Going Dark (1912946068 is the ASIN number if you like well written crime novels). Finally I have a book which I’m enjoying and not moaning about.

On the subject of Amazon book numbers (ASIN), I have just finished uploading forty campaigns to Amazon Ads, with another twenty to go. I used ASINs to search for relevant best sellers on Amazon, and from there produced numerous books through a site called Yasiv.com (free, by the way). Sometimes I would get as many as 300 connections to one ASIN. From there is was a case of jiggery-pockery and the confusing world of Excel spreadsheets to produce suitable keywords for my campaigns on Amazon. Sound confusing? You bet; it took me hours to learn how to do all this, courtesy of Bryan Cohen’s excellent AMS ads course. Twenty more campaigns to upload and I will have sixty running for a month. This is all for my book, The Boy from Berlin. If all this works, I’ll see a positive upswing in my book sales which are trickling along the flat, bottom line with an occasional spike. Do I worry? Got more than selling books to worry about. Wish me luck.

Puzzles and more puzzles

2^nd. November 2019

Bit of a bumpy ride with Pat this week. Her next appointment is twelve days away, and as much as I hate to say it; I can’t wait for her to go back on chemo. The only medication she’s on at present is a beta blocker and a blood pressure pill, so we’ve no idea what her real situation is. I try to make decisions based on Pat’s apparent condition and what she admits to. I use the BP monitor to keep an eye on her and today I bought a Finger Oxygen monitor. I’m beginning to feel like a doctor, or Quack! Her weight is stable, thank goodness, and she seems to be in good humour, except when I ask her to do some colouring pictures with me; then she acts like a truculent ten year old and won’t. But she does at least attempt the quiz book for seven year old kids. One page every morning: Sudoku, that kind of thing. But that’s for her mental state. So we’re winning there.

Back to my other world. I came to the end of my AMS advertising in USA for my book, The Boy from Berlin. Very poor results. I complained to my mentor, Bryan Cohen, who responded with a daunting challenge to put the ads back on with a new campaign that will result in sixty ads. He has given me explicit instructions on how to go about this. I must admit it makes me nervous because AMS ads can sometimes run away with you. Needs careful monitoring two or three times a day: something I have precious little time for these days.

My book sales for No Time to Die are trickling along, and the page reads are slowly climbing. I will be coming to the end of those particular ads next week, but will start again with a whole new bunch of keywords. I am slowly beginning to understand spreadsheets: something that is a helpful part of preparing an ad campaign. Made some mistakes in the process though. Two days ago I built a column of sixty ASIN numbers and began the process of copying in the relevant search results on Yasiv.com. Once I had the information I wanted, I edited the results, removing all the characters like commas, colons etc. that are not wanted as keywords. End result? I’d managed to edit my ASIN numbers too because I’d left them on the spreadsheet. I was really annoyed with myself because it took about an hour to meticulously prepare the ASIN numbers. UGH!

Next week, on Wednesday, I am going to the Chindi group’s Christmas Book launch. The book is a collection of Christmas stories pertinent to West Sussex, written by some of the group’s members, and available now. The launch party will be opened by best-selling author, Beryl Kingston, also a member of our group, so it should be a good evening. You can see the book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Feast-Christmas-Stories-Unwrap-Sussex-ebook/dp/B07WSGPKMP/ref

I had a quick look at my pulp fiction WIP last night, but soon realised that I simply don’t have the inclination to spend any time on it. Probably won’t now until after Christmas. Then maybe I’ll be able to knuckle down. Wish me luck!

Getting my ducks in a row

26^th. October 2019

Pat’s situation cheers me up one minute and lets me down the next. We had a trip to the neurologist last Tuesday for a consultation. It means Pat will be referred to a memory clinic for some kind of rehabilitation. She also has an appointment for a head scan in a couple of weeks. But we were back at the doctors the following day because her water infection returned, so she’s on antibiotics again. And this morning I had to take her for a flu jab. She didn’t want to go, but what do you do? We sought advice from the cancer nurse before making the appointment though. She isn’t getting much sleep at the moment, which means I’m not, but that’s the way it is.

On to other things now. My book sales are creeping up. Haven’t hit the big time by any means, but the graph is showing signs of early growth. One factor is the jump in page reads on KU. My title, No Time to Die (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07WFQMQV4) has reached 773 page reads this month. This gives me something of a problem: I decided to take the book out of KU once it’s 90 days were up on November 11^th, but those kind of figures for me are bloody good. So I guess I have no option but to extend the KU for another 90 days. What I am going to do though is advertise the book in USA on Amazon Ads. At the moment it’s the UK ad that is encouraging sales and page reads. I’m also thinking of advertising on BookBub again (not the featured deal), because that seems to bring sales in on D2D. Just got to watch the pennies though. The beauty of AMS is that it’s reluctant to take your money from you unless you’re attracting positive clicks, which is a step closer to selling a book. Oh, and I sold three paperbacks this month: three more than I sell in a year I think. Must be doing something right then.

And because I’m picking up a bit on-line, and people are viewing my FB page and my profile on LinkedIn, I thought I ought to tidy up my website. Not being technically proficient in that area, I set about it a couple of days ago with some smart idea of how I was going to blow everyone away with my phenomenally brilliant web page. Well, it’s back to the drawing board and a careful reconsideration of exactly how I should go about this. So, I’m lining all my ducks up in a row and creating new 3D images of my jackets, which I will put on my main page with links direct to the sales pages. With luck, my ‘subtle’ changes will encourage potential readers to click on the books once they’ve landed on my website and go on to buy!

I watched a SPF podcast last night (I watched it on my laptop. This means I can be in the room with Pat). It was a writer called Amanda Lee. What a phenomenal woman! She writes 9000 words a day and has written almost 200 books in the last eight years. She turns out one book a month and has an eleven book series in the pipeline. She reads about five books a week as well as editing her own material. She also writes under another name as well as her own. Just watching the interview left me shaking my head. What kind of life is that? Good luck to her if she’s happy. She’s certainly successful and must have a huge fan base. If only, eh? But I don’t think I would welcome success if that was the kind of sacrifice needed. Careful what you wish for. Oh, and talking of wishing: wish me luck!

Don't rain on my parade

20^th. October 2019.

Something of a mixed bag week for me. Pat’s condition has improved, but only marginally. She had a heart monitor fitted on Monday, which I returned on Friday. There were no dramas and no need to fill in a report. I have now started helping her to complete one puzzle a day from a quiz book for Seven year olds and above (I’m 78, so I qualify). It’s to help Pat’s brain get the stimulation it needs, and is a recommended therapy from different specialists. We are still waiting for an appointment with the neurologist. I phoned the hospital but they weren’t helpful. I’ll phone again tomorrow: plague the life out of them.

On the book front, my week exploded with a smashing article in the Daily Express about my latest book, No Time to Die (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07WFQMQV4). It appeared quicker than I expected. I thought it was well conceived and brought a lot of attention too, including 479 reactions (to date) on the SPF Facebook group. It was also picked up by BBC Radio Sussex. Their web crawlers flagged it. They contacted me that day and I had a short interview on their breakfast show the following day. So, a lot of excitement in my book world.

I have finally managed to get accounts with Amazon Advertising in UK and Germany. It’s early days yet for the UK ad, and I don’t really expect much from the German ad. I put The Eagle’s Covenant (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00LZRKJ4O) up for that. The book is set in Germany and I was able to research German police procedures etc., courtesy of the German Embassy in London, when I wrote the book. It’s a gripping thriller and ticks all the boxes, including a completely unexpected twist at the end. I just hope the German nation suddenly become English language aficionados and buy the book. We’ll see. For the other sites, my book sales and KU read throughs are creeping up a little. Not too much.

Going back to the 479 reactions on my FB post: one guy criticised the journalism, said he was an “ex journo” himself. No matter how many people enjoy your moment in the spotlight, there’s always someone who wants to rain on your parade, isn’t there? Tosser!

Another great family week too. Our grandson Sam spoke to us on Facetime during the week. We weren’t able to get to his wedding last month for obvious reasons, so it was nice of him to get in touch and have a natter. On Friday, our number 2 son came over with his daughter, Gemma and great grandson, Orin. And yesterday, Saturday, our number one son, Vincent came down from Norfolk with our grand-daughter, Sarah for the day. I even managed to get out down the pub with Vince for an hour and have a couple of pints. Haven’t done that for almost a year now. It was good therapy.

I have to accept now that my writing time must be limited because of the need to spend more time with Pat. It’s only fair for her that I don’t spend most of my free time stuck on my computer in my room. We don’t know how much time we’ll have together, and I pray to God that Pat will come through this and we can enjoy more years in the autumn of our lives. We’re looking forward to our 60^th. wedding anniversary in January and I have to believe we’ll make it. So, limited progress now and a fresh look maybe in the New Year. Wish us luck!

There's rubbish in there too.

October 12^th. 2019

It’s been a fairly normal week with Pat, if I can call it normal. No dramas. Took her to the dentist on Tuesday for a scale and polish, and on Wednesday a trip to the doctor to talk about her blood pressure pill, which he told her to stop taking. It’s to see if she can get rid of the persistent cough she has. This was suggested by the haematologist. We’re now waiting for an appointment to see the neurologist. And on Monday Pat will be fitted with a heart monitor. Yesterday was a good day for her because our grand-daughter, Gemma came over with our great grandson, Orin. Gemma thought it might give me an opportunity to have some “me” time. Well, it hammered down in rain so I used the time to take some rubbish down the tip. Life never gets dull, do it?

On the book front I’m not pulling up any trees with my book sales, despite now advertising on Amazon.co.uk. It’s taken Amazon an inordinately long time to bring this about, but a lot of indie authors will be setting up accounts to start ads in this country. I have to admit that, despite saying I have given up the idea of writing for the foreseeable future, I did look at my sequel to HUNTED and added another thousand words. I have even come up with an idea, pretty spectacular too, to move the story arc up into a higher level. But — there’s always a but — I still need to knuckle down and get on the Amazon Ads course I signed up to with Bryan Cohen. This will need time, careful study and a great deal of head scratching. Goodness knows how I’m going to crack it; I can only hope I will see that light at the end of the tunnel pretty soon.

My reading now, having given up on Lesley Thomson, is a crime thriller by Mia Sheridan: Where the Blame Lies. I picked it at random out of Amazon’s top 100 crime novels. So far it looks worth all the five stars and good reviews it has received. My trouble though is that I am fairly slow reader because of all the other stuff that creeps in. Last night I watched an appalling England side get beat by the Czech Republic at football. I would have done better with my time either writing or reading rather than watching rubbish.

Talking of reviews; I received a lovely 4 star review for Hell’s Gate this week. You can make up your own mind. “A Good book. Very enjoyable. See author’s blurb for details.”

I still have a smile on my face though because David Pilditch of the Daily Express has emailed me to say he’s reading my book No Time to Die, he’s enjoying it and hopes to get something in the paper next week. I’m keeping my fingers crossed although I do know that some unexpected, dramatic news could wipe me off the pages of the National Press. Like (for my UK readers) a spat between two WAGS (footballer’s wives) over who snitched on who and passed it on to the Sun newspaper. Took up about three pages in the Daily Mail!

I got my car back much to my relief. Walked in with the key to my loan car and walked out with my car keys: no payment, just a ‘thank you very much, sorry about the delay sir’. I love this KIA seven year warranty.

Next up for me is really much of the same thing. I’ll be emailing my subscribers about the fourth book in my back-list, The Eagle’s Covenant. Hopefully they’ll go out and buy it droves. Will they? Wish me luck!

Is there a silver lining in there somewhere?

October 5^th. 2019

Saw the haematologist last Monday and he decided to suspend Pat’s chemo for another seven weeks so they can deal with her memory loss. He was happy with the blood test and X-Ray results which suggested that the cancer is fairly benign at the moment. That doesn’t mean it’s in remission, although we would like to think that, but it’s safe enough for a short referral to the neurological department. He said Pat’s ‘mini stroke’ should now be considered a ‘stroke’, which is why the suspension of treatment and referral can go ahead. We have a GP appointment on Wednesday for her because she needs a change with one of her tablets and a progress report for the benefit of the GP. Physically, Pat’s isn’t too bad, but could do with some weight on. I’m working on that!

On the book front, I find I’m the one to whom the term ‘flat lining’ could be applied: metaphorically speaking of course. I have given up the idea of writing anything for now and am trying (TRYING) to concentrate on learning more about the mysteries of Amazon advertising. It all looks good on paper and when the expert is explaining how to crack it, but a whole lot different when it comes to the bottom line of sales figures etc.  But despite all that, I do have a smile on my face because of a phone call I received during the week.

Last month, our number three son, John, wrote to the Sun newspaper and the Daily Express about my latest book, NoTime to Die. He was intrigued by the fact I happened to pick on the title of the next James Bond movie just a week before the film title was released. He received a reply from David Pilditch of the Express asking about me. He was intrigued too and called me during the week. We were on the phone for over an hour. He was really interested in me and my books, particularly my latest. We had a laugh about me suing the film company or them suing me. I reminded him that titles are not copyright, but it did give us both something to chuckle about. He asked if he could get a photo of me with the book and said he would send a photographer down to do that. I posted him a copy of the paperback the next day and now I can only wait and see what happens next. To use the old cliché about being ‘long in the tooth’, and many others I could think about, I know nothing might come of this, so I won’t get too excited; I might not even hear from Mr. Pilditch again, but it brought a smile to my face. And my boy John can dream of a bigger inheritance for a while.

The book promotion I was involved in this week resulted in the sale of two books. That’s probably two more of that title I would have sold. My efforts on Amazon ads have resulted in the sale of three books, which makes it a bit pointless really. But I know there are pretty good results from the right targeting etc., so I will continue to tweak and live in hope.

Nothing to do with books, but a look at how the car company, KIA, deal with their clients. My car went in for a service four weeks ago where they discovered an oil leak. The part was placed on order, which took two weeks. Took the car in, hoping to have it back within twenty four hours, but got a call to say they had the wrong oil seal. One week later I’m told that they can’t get the right oil seal so have decided to fit a new gearbox! Wow! A new oil seal would cost about £20, but a new gearbox? Not that I’m complaining, at least they are honouring KIA’s seven year warranty. Thank goodness. Perhaps I should let them handle my book problems. Wish me luck!

It's all a worry

September 28^th. 2019

This week has been not too bad with Pat. It’s the last week before she’s due to recommence chemo (on Tuesday). Her hair is beginning to grow again, but it could all disappear once the chemo is back on. It isn’t all plain sailing though; her mini stroke has left its mark, and I’m concerned that she isn’t making any real progress. But that’s me worrying and wanting to see a speedy cure. Pat has had some stimulation in the visit from our number two son, Terry, our grand-daughter, Gemma and her little ‘un, Orin. Terry has just come back from our grandson’s wedding in Atlanta, so he was able to tell Pat all about that. Tuesday evening a lady friend from church came to sit with Pat while I went out for the evening. They did some flower arranging. Well, our friend did the arranging but at least it was something for Pat. She had a blood test yesterday in readiness for the haematologist on Monday. Just prior to that she’ll be having a chest X-Ray. Hopefully the doc will give the go-ahead for the chemo to begin again.

My evening out on Tuesday was to a book talk at Bognor Regis library given by best-selling author, Lesley Thomson. I’ve never heard of the lady, but it gave me an opportunity to step out of my current world and into the other one I occupy when I can: my book world. I bought one of her paperbacks, The Detective’s Daughter and started reading it on Wednesday. I know I’m going to have difficulty in getting through the book because her writing style is so alien to me, it’s a struggle. But her book sales are stratospheric, so there must be a lot of people out there who have no problem with her style. She wrote her first book years ago in Sydney while on a work visa out there, and didn’t write another book for twenty years. I know someone like that!

My Amazon ads are still drifting aimlessly, but I am beginning to make sense of some of it. I won’t be discouraged though. In fact, I’ve extended the ads for another month. It isn’t costing me any money because I’m not selling the book I’m advertising, but I am selling some of my other titles: just over thirty this month. I am now planning to launch another campaign for my latest book, No Time to Die. I’m confident I can get enough keywords that suit the genre, and I’ll be targeting Robert Galbraith in the first instance (J.K.Rowling) for the Private Investigator element.

I made another decision during the night as I lay wide awake next to my soundly sleeping wife after a short drama. I realised that my efforts to continue with my current WIP were like sowing seeds on to stony ground. I came to the conclusion that I needed to package my Marcus Blake thrillers (three now) in the way the majority of series authors do, and come up with a fourth novel. I would need to redo all the jackets and remedy the impact of the fonts, but there are plenty of examples on Amazon of those successful authors whose book jackets are literally all identical. It has to be my project for 2020, beginning as soon as I come up with an idea for the fourth “in the series”.

I’m involved in a book promotion over the next five days. Hasn’t cost me anything, but the last one I did with this group netted a dozen sales for the book, which was good. This time it’s for The Eagle’s Covenant. The price has been dropped to £0.99 for the duration of the promotion. The link to the thrillers available is https://storyoriginapp.com/to/L6ZLlIe. Why not have a look? You’ll see my jacket there alongside the sixteen other books. We have a combined reach of 41,000 subscribers, which is pretty good.

So, where to now? Tomorrow is our harvest festival at church. I took some grub in today after getting my flu jab. Monday is the hospital day and Tuesday will be chemo day. Once I’ve finished posting this blog, I’ll be doing the ironing and watching footie on the TV. Oh, one other thing: I gave nine hardback copies of my romance, Past Imperfect, to the lady who looked after Pat during the week for her book group. I passed those on to her earlier last week. She said she was surprised at the ‘quality’ of the prose, and then apologised because she didn’t mean she thought I wouldn’t be able to produce anything like that. She loved the book too. It’s always nice when you hear unsolicited comments like that. I just wish I could use them to sell more books. You never know though. Wish me luck!

Tolerance and Tuppence

Monday kind of started well; Pat seemed to be improving, although just a little. But it was a comfort to know she wasn’t dealing with chemo as well as the after-effects of a mini-stroke. This emboldened me to spend a little more time in the garden, clearing away a lot of stuff that was taking over. It left little time for creative work in front of my PC, but I am trying. We had a church house group meeting here on Tuesday. This is good for Pat’s stimulation: mostly women! Wednesday I took Pat over to the house of one of our church friends so she could spend some time with two more ladies having a natter in a beautiful sun-filled conservatory. All good for Pat’s mental recovery. We had a visit from our Pastor. He’s younger than our youngest son, but a smashing bloke, so that was good. And through all that we were getting photographs of our grandson, Sam, getting married to Taryn in America where they live. Naturally Pat and I would have been there, but Pat’s illness made that impossible. It was good to see lots of photos though on Facebook.

On the book front, I did manage a couple of lines of my pulp fiction thriller. I managed to write the incident on the bus that I needed to move our hero forward in the story. Now he’s off the bus and about to help one of the victims of the incident. Very Jack Reacher! I’m now about 2000 words into the story, so a long, long way to go.

My book sales still suck. The Amazon Ads School, of which I am a student, isn’t helping much. No doubt that’s down to me because I’m not really paying attention. I will soldier on for another week and then, reluctantly, scrap the ad and begin again. The annoying thing is that the book I’m advertising has a blurb written by Bryan Cohen, one of the top men in the business, and the jacket design by Stuart Bache, another top industry man. The only answer I can come up with is that my marketing skills, like my sales figures, also suck.

My number three son, John, phoned during the week to tell me he’d read my latest book, No Time to Die. Took him one day! He thoroughly enjoyed it (I would know if he was lying), but pointed out some typos and another observation he had to make about the page numbers. Fortunately I was able to correct all that in about ten minutes. I have uploaded the edited files and have ordered one copy, just to check. I made a small change to the jacket as well.

Mark Dawson’s Self-Publishing Show Live event, of which I spoke last week, has really taken off. So much so he has had to hire another venue having sold over 800 tickets for the event (he expected about 300). Members of the group are coming in from all over the world for this. Some of them are staying on for the London Book Fair which begins the day after. And one thing that Mark and his team do at each event they attend is to offer to buy the SPF members a pint at a local hostelry (this week it’s in Vancouver), and he has put out the same invite for next March. It now looks as though he will have to hire a venue just to get the people in so he can buy them a pint. It doesn’t take much stretch of the imagination to see that it could become a big annual event if Mark and his team decide to run with it. They already have some top authors lined up for March, so it isn’t unreasonable to think it could become permanent.

And today I had to take our little Cockapoo, Tuppence, to the vet. Poor little girl has some kind of problem that the vet believes is pain in the hip joint. She had an injection (the dog, not the vet!) and is on tablets. No walkies then for a day or so. And I have a pain in my wallet; it cost me £65 for that consultation, and Tuppence didn’t even blush when I paid it. Now I have two sick girls to nurse at home.

But tonight I will at least be able to watch one of my favourite sporting events: it’s the British Speedway Grand Prix at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. It’s often billed as the biggest indoor sporting event in the world. I don’t know if that’s true, but I know I’ll enjoy it. Wish me luck!

Many hands make light work.

September 14^th. 2019

Monday began with a trip to the haematologist for Pat’s pre-chemo consultation. I was quite nervous about this because she had only just been discharged from hospital after her mini-stroke. The haematologist decided, after having a good look at the various scans, X-rays and blood tests, that it would be safer for Pat to have a break from the chemo. He was happy with the progress she has made so far, and saw no reason why he couldn’t give her a chance to get stronger. I was happy with that. It’s too early for me to say Pat is healing and getting her mind back, but a couple of days ago we went through the Jack & Jill nursery rhyme. I had to help her with each line. The following morning I asked her if she could remember it and she recited it without a problem. I was really excited for her because it gave an indication that her brain is healing. I need to get her a bit heavier though because she lost weight while she was in dock.

I’ve tried to squeeze some literary work in while coping with Pat and the jobs around the house and garden. I had a look at my pulp fiction WIP. I managed a few lines, but not enough to say I’m making brilliant progress. I’ve got my main character into Russia, he’s on a bus two thousand miles from Moscow and heading for the Siberian Peninsular. What he witnesses on the bus is the key to the next step in the story in which my character shows his remarkable guile, cunning and extreme fighting skills. Well, it is a pulp fiction thriller, so I must not let detail and facts get in the way of the action. Right? The character’s name, by the way, is Martin Quil, from a work of fiction I conjured up sixty years ago and resurrected in my pulp fiction thriller this year called Hunted. He’s a clever lad; has all the skills I can invent, and he speaks fluent colloquial Russian. Now, where could you find a hero like that? Only in Hunted — the Sequel. Ta Da!

My campaign on Amazon Ads sucks at the moment. Having put up three ads according to Bryan Cohen’s instructions, I have sold precisely none. The advice I have received is that the data with AMS can take up to six or seven days to filter through, I have to be patient and if nothing else happens, I have to increase my budget. All seems a bit too simple to me, which is probably why I’m getting nowhere, but I will stick with it; after all, I’ve paid Mr. Cohen for his expert advice. I had hoped that the new book jacket, which was designed by top man, Stuart Bache, would be enough to draw the clicks and opens like moths to a flame, but that doesn’t seem to be happening either.

Another small string to my bow (if that’s the right thing to say) is having my book, Hell’s Gate with Voracious Readers. I am picking up at least two subscribers a day which means new readers. The system allows me to have as many books on offer (free of course) to encourage readers to subscribe. Eventually, depending on how many ‘clicks’ I get, I will have to pay a small, monthly subscription. It’s voluntary, naturally, and I can pull out any time. This should help the organic growth and lead to more sales. Hope so.

Looking ahead (well ahead), the tickets for Mark Dawson’s SPS show next year was so over-subscribed that he has had to find another venue. Fortunately he has and the numbers expecting to attend will be over 700. It will be called SPS (Self-Publishing Show) Live. You don’t have to be a member of Mark’s group now because there’s enough room for everybody. It happens to be the day before the London Book Fair opens, so quite a few of the SPF crowd will be staying on for that too. If Pat is fully recovered by then, I might be tempted to stay over, but at the moment I suspect I’ll just take in the SPS event.

I managed to get some garden time in this morning and took the shears and hedge trimmer to much of the stuff that’s taking over. Pat would be horrified if she knew what was in my mind, but as the poor girl can’t do it, I have to make the decisions. Such power. Whatever next? Wish me luck.

Beavering away

September 7^th. 2019

Pat is out of hospital now; she came home on Wednesday. It was confirmed that she’d had a mini stroke; some kind of conflict with her tablets. Thankfully Pat has full use of her limbs and most of her faculties. Her responses are mostly mono-syllabic, but she can always grasp what is meant when questions are put to her. She has difficulty recalling much, but there are signs of improvement even though they are minimal. I am told, by people who have experienced this kind of thing, that recovery is usually 100%. I certainly hope so, but the poor girl has chemo to put up with as well. She begins her fourth round next Tuesday, provided the haematologist approves it. I remember one of my chemo sessions being postponed after a period of isolation.

This weekend was to have been a big one for us: our No.2 grandson is getting married in America next week. We would have gone but for what’s happened to Pat. Meanwhile two of our sons are going with their families, so for us the videos will be something to look forward to.

I finally managed to complete the first two hour video training session of Bryan Cohen’s excellent Amazon Ads School. I now have to do the homework which is to post three ads on Amazon and try to make sense of everything Bryan has told us. These ads, although meant to draw in some money, are more about learning and gaining some kind of traction among the Amazon readers and to eradicate all the unnecessary keywords that might prove to be useless. There are other pitfalls as well that need avoiding, but getting some ads out there is the only way to learn and find that light-bulb moment. And on the subject of getting ads out there: my sales this week have been practically zero — two copies, which means no-one is seeing me on the Amazon product pages because I’m not advertising. I’m hoping to start my campaign tomorrow.

I received the six author copies of my latest book, No Time to Die on Thursday, and posted five of them out to our four sons and one to a friend of ours in Lincoln. The cost of sending the book to Australia was just over £7 — more than the book’s worth I think. But I had to sign it for our Aussie boy. He probably won’t read it, but I live in hopes. Incidentally, the books were printed in Poland.

I did something yesterday I didn’t expect to do, and that was to start loosely plotting the sequel to my pulp fiction thriller, Hunted. It’s been beavering away in my head for a while now, and I’ve tried to ignore it because of looking after Pat and getting all the jobs done, not to mention spending hours up at the hospital. But the first concept, the opening preamble if you like, is down on paper. I’m well pleased with it too. Trouble is, I don’t know where to go from there yet. I guess I will.

I managed to get out and do a big shop today. Two friends of ours from church came in and sat with Pat. I was out for two and a half hours, spent a fortune and got everything on my list. I couldn’t believe I was actually looking forward to going to the shops and being allowed the time to get what I wanted as well as what was on the list. Perhaps in today’s diverse world, I should identify as a woman one day a week and enjoy shopping more often. No? No, I didn’t think so either. Whatever comes, I’ll soldier on.

Those of you who are in Mark Dawson’s SPF group will know that he has organised an SPF Live convention in London next March. Trouble is, there’s only room for 300 people, and he knows it will be well over-subscribed. The tickets go on sale at 2pm Monday. I can imagine people glued to their computers if they’re at work, hoping the boss doesn’t see them as they try to add their names to the list. I’ll be at the hospital with Pat for a mid-day appointment. If she doesn’t need any X-rays or scans that day, I could make it back in time for the 2pm deadline. Here’s hoping. Wish me luck.

Coming, going and coping.

My week began slowly with regard to Pat’s situation. This was the beginning of what we call the ‘second week’ in the chemo process where the patient is most vulnerable. I had to pick up seven syringes from the hospital to begin the ‘protective’ phase for her, but by Wednesday she was showing signs of deterioration and Thursday morning was taken back into hospital. She is now on antibiotics and has had three scans. Outwardly, Pat is OK, and is showing signs of good recovery, but it’s unlikely she will be home for a couple of days yet. I’m getting used to living off ready meals by the way.

On the book front, I have joined a promotion for my latest book, No Time to Die. It began yesterday and this morning I’d sold five copies. The promotion will run for five days. The link for the books on offer, all free or $0.99 (Crime thrillers — 17 of them) is at https://storyoriginapp.com/to/5Jey3uT. At the moment mine is showing on the first page, but I think the organisers rotate the pages. Why not have a look?

All in all this month, my book sales have been sketchy, but I’ve managed to sell about 44 copies so far. That is good for me because it isn’t all promotion; a lot of that is organic. I’m hoping to remedy that by creating a campaign on Amazon Ads. Trouble is, I still haven’t got through the first Bryan Cohen video properly. I set the video going on my PC, sit back to absorb the information and wake up with out a clue of what’s been said. So I rewind and then give up. Back the next day, same thing. I will crack it though, after all, it cost a fair bit, but the idea is to have a forensic understanding of the way in which the ads work, and how to manage them. Time will tell just how successful I’ll be with them. Unfortunately my current situation doesn’t lend itself to serious study. I’m off to the hospital in ten minutes, couple of hours and home again. Snatch a meal, walk the dog and go back to the hospital. I’m spending more on car parking each day than I would on advertising. Frustrating, but that’s the way it is. When we lived in Spain, car parking at the hospitals was free (probably still the same).

I have changed my reading habits from typical A&A thrillers, most of which annoy me, to perhaps a more cerebral crime novel. I downloaded The Sound of Rain by Gregg Olsen. (No, me neither). Anyway, the guy’s a ‘best-selling author, so I thought I’d give it a go. So far it’s a little weird for me, but interesting. I think the story will become more edgy as it goes on. I’ll let you know if I get round to finishing it; something I seem to have trouble with these days — finishing what I started.

I can’t see much further ahead for my own book ambitions, simply because I have little time to myself now. If Pat recovers fully, I should be able to get back to some semblance of order. I can only squeeze this blog in because of separating my morning and afternoon visits, plus I think by keeping this ‘space’ open, it helps me to maintain links to my readers and zillions of fans. Meanwhile, I hope I sell a ton of books. Wish me luck!

Great minds think alike.

August 24^th. 2019

The week began with a visit to the haematologist for Pat’s blood test results and a resumé of where she is with the chemo. It turned out that one of the chemicals, etoposide, was too toxic for her; no doubt it would have killed her had they persisted with it. That was the reason she ended up in hospital for a week. That has been resolved now, thankfully, and Pat is on her third chemo session. We had to go to the hospital three days running, which cuts into our free time, but it is what it is and we have to put up with it. Pat is a little wearier now, but so long as I keep an eye on her, we should be OK. CT scan next.

On the book front I’ve had an interesting week. Haven’t sold any books, but I have dived into a couple of courses on email marketing and Amazon ads. The former is with Adam Croft, the latter with Bryan Cohen. If I can master their advice, I should be able to look forward to a better understanding of how to use the kind of tools that an indie writer needs these days to make sense of the whole business. I have already decided to change my tactics with regard to marketing and will be adopting a new approach to my 1200 or so subscribers. I still have a way to go, but I will try to stay with it. The Amazon ads course is a little different in that there is a lot of study, about nine hours in total, and that’s without running a campaign. I will be testing the water later with my latest book, No Time to Die with an Ads campaign. You can find the book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07WFQMQV4. That will be followed up with The Boy from Berlin.

When I circulated the jacket for No Time to Die, one observation from somebody was to ask what kind if title that was. Someone said it didn’t mean anything with regard to the genre etc. But I liked the title and decided to stay with it. Then a week after I’d published the book, I find that the latest James Bond film is to be called: No Time to Die. What a coincidence! See, great minds think alike. I might be able to make some capital out of the common link, but I have to wait until next April when the film will be released.

I had a couple of problems getting my jacket changed with KDP. I couldn’t publish the book because there was an error with the meta data, highlighted in red. I couldn’t see it. I checked all the KDP data pages for the book, but there was no red highlight. I contacted Amazon and was told that the pricing for Japan was incorrect. This is set automatically when you choose a price for USA; all the other areas have their price boxes filled in. Seems that I was charging 1215 Japanese yen for the paperback instead of 1218. Three yen? Anyway, we got it sorted. The updated book arrived today. Looks fine now.

Something to look forward to next year for members of Mark Dawson’s SPF group: a meet-up at Amazon’s HQ in London early March. I know the SPF group has a huge following, and I’m sure the meet-up will be buzzing. And from what I’ve learned about Mark and his partner in the business, James Blatch, it will be a pretty good turn-out. Hopefully I’ll be able to go and, hopefully, I’ll be able to tell people how successful I’ve been with email marketing and Amazon ads. Am I dreaming? Wish me luck!

On yer bike, son

August 17^th. 2019

Pat came out of hospital last Monday after spending six days in isolation. We were happy to have her home (me and Tuppence). Although Pat has recovered from the infection, she is still quite frail. I’m keeping an eye on her temperature and BP, but there is precious little I can do about her general weakness. She had a blood test yesterday in preparation for the appointment with her haematologist on Monday, which will be followed by her third chemo session the following day. All the jobs around the house are slipping behind again because of the amount of time I’ve had to spend on visits etc., but I’m hoping to catch up as we get through next week. This afternoon I’ll be doing the ironing and watching the football on TV (on the big tellie! Yeah!)

I published my latest crime thriller (No Time to Die) during the week, but not without a couple of tweaks that were necessary. When I checked the ‘Look inside’ facility on the Amazon product page, I could see the text was ‘left justified’; something I dislike intensely, but in the downloaded eBook the text if justified. It makes me happier but I did wonder how many potential readers would be put off by the book because of the way the text appears on the product page. I’ve bought a print version, which arrived today. There are a couple of changes I’ve already noticed that I’ll deal with, but I will go through the book with a red pen and then update the cover and Word doc before sending it up to Amazon. You can find it at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07WFQMQV4

Back on the health front for the moment. I have had a chest infection (something historical) since Pat went into hospital and ended up seeing the doc. Meanwhile, Pat was talking to our eldest son on the phone while I was watching the football on my laptop. She told me our son, who is a personal trainer, said I should be on an electrolyte to compensate for my mood-swings (really?) and to ensure I don’t get dehydrated. She said I had to buy an electrolyte from the Wiggle bicycle company. Now I know I was watching football and not listening, but honestly, who buys electrolyte from a bike shop? But sure enough I ended up buying it from the Wiggle bicycle company. Could have gone to Boots of course. Perhaps Wiggle could start selling my books?

I’ve signed up for an email marketing course with Adam Croft. It’s a cheapy and he will tell me where I’m going wrong with my email marketing etc. Well, all the experts will insist you need a big bunch of subscribers because they are your most important marketing tool EVER! I’ve done Nick Stephenson’s excellent course, I’m a member of Mark Dawson’s SPF group and have followed his advice, and have seen it trumpeted far and wide by all those who know how to sell books through their subscribers. When I launched my eBook, I notified my subscribers of it’s release at 0.99 and it’s inclusion in KDP Select (which means it’s free for members), and sat back waiting for the sales figures to rocket. I have 1220 subscribers and in two days I have sold 2 paperbacks (I bought one), eighteen eBooks (yes, I bought one), and have seen 8 pages read on KU. Fantastic. So I’m wondering where I went wrong after spending so much time and money on Mark Dawson and Nick Stephenson. No doubt Adam Croft will reveal all. I think I will be told that it’s “Engagement” that counts. But how can I engage when my open rate is about 0.1%?

So, more effort from me, more effort from my readers and more pedal power if I’m to get anywhere. Wish me luck!

Great Expectations

August 10^th. 2019

We are now at the end of what Pat and I refer to as the “middle week” of the chemotherapy. This is the low and risky point where the immune system is at its weakest. Sure enough, Pat’s blood pressure started going down and her temperature went up to over 38 C. I had no option but to phone the emergency number we’d been given. I was told to take her in, and now she’s in hospital for six days while they treat her for the infection. She’s in a sterile room under ‘protective isolation’. A similar thing happened to me when I was having chemo: three times during those middle weeks. On the last one I was put in hospital for six days; three in isolation. Pat’s in good spirits though but wants to come home — natch!

I’m now looking forward to publishing my latest Marcus Blake thriller, No Time to Die. The jacket is ready and I’m doing a final read through before putting it up on Amazon as part of their competition. It would be nice to win, but it’s unlikely. Amazon will give the winner £20,000 and a lot of promotion. That would be nice. I also paid Stuart Bache a kings’ ransom for the new jacket for my book, The Boy from Berlin. This provoked a discussion with some of the Chindi authors in our private FB group. This year I have spent just under £1000 for four jacket designs. Two were with professional designers, one was with a writer who offered to design a jacket at a low price, and the cheapest, £50, was with Fiverr.com; it was for my pulp fiction thriller, Hunted. Setting promotion attempts aside, Hunted sells regularly, not much I have to say, but it sells. The first professionally designed jacket has sold three copies this year with some promotion. In June/July I promoted The Boy from Berlin with the author designed jacket, new blurb, rewritten prologue, and sold 100 copies. Facebook relieved me of about £275 for the promotion. It will be interesting to see what kind of difference the next campaign I run with Stuart Bache’s new jacket will achieve. When it comes to ROI, I’m losing out big time. But — there’s always a ‘but’ — without advertising, not many people will know about me and my books. It’s a Catch 22 situation, but that’s life for most indie authors.

Talking about my new jacket; I put it up on KDP and, sure enough, it appeared on the Amazon eBook product page, but not the paperback page. This has happened to me before, and when I’ve queried it with the great Zon, I am usually told it will be OK when a copy is ordered. They do change it though. I can’t order a paperback until I know the jacket has been changed. It’s annoying, but I do want to think about another promotion. Just got to save some money!

Now that I can look ahead to a period without writing, I can catch up with the jobs that get neglected because I’m looking after Pat. And what with hospital visits there’s little I can plan. I can think a lot, but it isn’t getting words on paper. Thinking about Hunted, I can see that the way to go has to be pulp fiction. I have a sequel in my head, but not too much detail. It will need research, but for me, the whole point of writing pulp fiction is to knock something out in a couple of months, bugger the research and just get some excitement between the pages; this is what the reader of these kind of thrillers want. And they sell. But do I really want to go down that route? It usually takes me about a year to write a novel. My latest took eighteen months, but there were good reasons for the unusual length of time. To turn out pulp fiction stuff means one every three months or so, and I’m not really that kind of writer. But hey, what the heck? I’m not getting any younger, so I might just knuckle down and turn out a pulsating, pulp fiction thriller. Wish me luck.

Staying the course

August 3^rd. 2019

The week got off to a good start with Pat’s second chemo session and no real dramas. We are both surprised and happy with the way she is coping, and this week Pat seems to have got stronger. She made a decision about her hair, and asked me to cut it off before it all fell out. We were due to go to the wig shop anyway, but didn’t cut her hair until after Pat had chosen her wig. I can’t get used to seeing her with a full head of hair, but now I also have to get used to seeing her with no hair! I felt awful taking the clippers to her head: like Sweeney Todd, the demon barber. But it’s another hurdle crossed and that’s a plus point.

On the book front, I have now received the final jacket for my book, The Boy from Berlin. I’m well pleased with it. Haven’t had the bill yet but it will hurt. For some reason, maybe because of my age, I can’t understand why a lot of indie authors spend hundreds of dollars on their books without knowing what kind of success they are likely to have. I’ve spent money on three jackets this year (four when I get Stuart’s bill), and I’m well out of pocket. So, what’s the answer? Spend money on advertising of course, but even then that’s no guarantee. When Jennie Nash critiqued the prologue of my political thriller, she mentioned the fact that I only had 23 reviews; it meant I had no traction. Since spending the best part of £300 (damn VAT) on Facebook, I’ve sold 100 copies of The Boy from Berlin, and still only have 23 reviews. As the Americans would say: “Go figure”. A couple of weeks ago I asked my sister-in-law if she would read the draft copy of my latest, yet to be published, crime novel, No Time to Die. She reads all the time, particularly when she’s travelling up to London as part of her work with IBM. She said some lovely things about the story and promised me it wasn’t because she was related; but she did wonder why writers with my ability (her words) didn’t get the wide readership their books deserved. I had to tell her that many indie authors will spend up to $100 a day on advertising; it’s the only way, so that kind of explains why my work disappears into the literary wilderness. I plan to set up another campaign on Facebook once I have the new jacket, but I will marshal this one very carefully.

I mentioned last week about the reaction to the book jacket I designed for my latest WIP and the reaction from the SPF group, but one response was from a USA Today best selling author, Ditter Kellen, who offered to design a jacket for nothing. Looking on Ditter’s website, I could see she was a prolific writer and had a great deal of success, but nowhere did it say she was a designer. Anyway, she offered to do a freebie so I agreed. She knocked out a very good jacket which demonstrated her skill, but it was a world away from how I visualised mine. I thanked her and said I couldn’t use it. I have also had some advice from members of the CHINDI group, all helpful of course, but in the end I will be biting the bullet and completing the design myself. The book will be available on-line before the end of the month, but I’m not sure yet how I’ll promote it. I have 1400 ‘contacts’ (MailChimp’s new euphemism for subscribers and unsubs), so I’ll let them know it’s coming and will probably start the ball rolling with a price of £0.99.

Next on the agenda is to catch up with work around the garden and in the house during the summer and try — TRY — not to think about my next book, but I do have to figure out how to get Martin Quil into Russia and out again……. Ho hum. Wish me luck!

Schisms and criticisms

July 27^th.2019

Well, the week got off to a good start; we made it to church, which meant Pat was feeling strong enough to get out and mix with friends. We couldn’t hang around too long at the end of the service but it was good to be there. We both gain a lot from the Praise and worship, and the general feelgood factor of just being among fellow believers, and that helps Pat enormously. On the flip side, Pat’s weaning dose of steroids finally came to an end, and I could see the resultant effect of that. We ended up in A&E yesterday because of problem Pat had that couldn’t be sorted by a visit to the GP. We were there for about four hours and after the usual tests, Pat was given a medication which helped. We’ll be seeing the haematologist on Monday because Pat will have her second dose of chemo that day. No doubt we’ll discuss the visit to A&E.

On the book front, I’m working with Stuart Bache on my book jacket. I’ve been reading his self-help book on jacket design and have also watched one of his instructional videos. Although I will be paying Stuart for the Boy from Berlin jacket, my latest book will have one of my own creation. And thereby hangs a tale (or a dilemma). I put my design up for my WIP title No Time to Die on the Chindi FB page and also the SPF FB page (Mark Dawson’s group). My, my, what a contrast! I received some very encouraging comments from the Chindi authors, but the complete opposite from the SPF group. I had about 40 responses from them, and only about four were complimentary; the rest were a mixture of…. Well, I don’t know how to phrase it. I did get the feeling that there was a kind of snobbishness in their collective responses. It was as though they were saying ‘oh, you can’t possibly do that; get a proper designer!’ Photoshop? Really? You can tell you don’t know how to use it. At least beg, borrow or steal the money for a decent jacket. Wrong fonts, wrong colours. I could go on. I did say, at the beginning of my post that I was working with Stuart Bache on a jacket, but couldn’t afford to pay for two professionally designed jackets. Two people offered to do the jacket for me: one very cheap ($175), one for free. So, a big lesson learned there. I will be working on my own jacket until I’m happy with it, but I’ll sneak it out under their noses. Have a look, see what you think, but I will be working on it, rest assured.

A curious email popped into my inbox; it came by way of the contact page on my website. It was from a video company called wiki.ezvid. The email was from Caroline Eliasson, to tell me that my thriller, Roselli’s Gold, had made it on to their Wiki list of grown up action thrillers. No money was asked for and the book is there, right enough. The link they provided was this: https://wiki.ezvid.com/m/11-grown-up-thrillers-full-of-action-and-adventure-gUpRMIJjb5ZXt  Why not check it out. There’s quite a lot to see there, plus details of the company and staff. Incidentally, when you click the video, you’ll see my book being trailered in video. Great stuff! They offer to make videos of your product of course, and that is what the business is all about.

My book sales are flat-lining again. The promotion for The Boy from Berlin, run over five weeks, resulted in a sale of 110 ebooks, plus about 20 of my other titles, which was good for me. I decided to try a short FB campaign for my African adventure, Hell’s Gate. So far I’ve sold one copy. The odd thing here is that I’ve had 30 people ‘like’ the link for the advert, so why haven’t they bought it? Unless Amazon has a fault in it’s system. I’d like to think so, but it’s unlikely. The campaign will finish in a few days, so I’ll let it run. The next one will be for The Boy from Berlin, once Stuart Bache has completed the artwork.

Next thing for me and Pat is her chemo session on Monday. All we can hope is that the treatment works and it won’t be long before we can see some positive improvement. Oh, and we’re off to the wig shop on Thursday. I think I could do with one. Wish us luck!

Expecting the unexpected

July 20^th. 2019

Things never turn out the way we might have expected, and this week had a few of those in store for us. Pat was due at the hospital on Monday morning for a blood test followed by an appointment three hours later with the haematologist. She had a problem over the weekend which needed dealing with urgently, so we walked into the Macmillan centre after her blood test, and within ten minutes we were sitting with the haematologist who decided to bring Pat’s afternoon appointment forward. We do know that the specialists involved in Pat’s saga over the last eight months, including her current doctor, have been aware of the need to deal with Pat as urgently as they can. In this case the doctor lived up to that by dealing with her quickly and, for us, unexpectedly. Pat is now improving gradually with the help of a load more pills. She’s handling her chemo well, which is something else we didn’t expect.

The Facebook ads for my thriller, The Boy from Berlin, came to a halt five days ago. The ads ran for four weeks: four in UK and three in USA. I sold 110 copies which included a couple of paperbacks. I also sold some of my other titles, most of which happened after the Berlin thriller started selling. I didn’t expect to do that well, although for some authors that kind of return would be abysmal, but with me, I tend to take a philosophical look at the whole thing and remain thankful that, to a certain extent, the ads worked. It was unexpected and encouraging. One downside is I am now getting emails from people offering to promote the book (at a price). I am still waiting for Stuart Bache to get back to me with the redesigned jacket; something he promised for ‘later in July’. Meanwhile I am running a short ad for my African novel, Hell’s Gate. I’ve had that running for three days and have sold two copies. I’m advertising in UK, Ireland and Kenya.

I have finished the final edit for my WIP (is it ever final?) and have been toying with book jacket designs. I can’t afford to pay anyone to do this for me because I’ve set aside money for Stuart Bache’s jacket this month. I have a copy of Stuart’s book on jacket design, which is very good, and I have found some useful information about colours and typeface etc. Meanwhile, I’m happy with the book at the moment. I asked my sister-in-law, Carol, to read it for me this afternoon. I asked her simply to read it and let me know if there are any inconsistencies etc. She reads a great deal so is no stranger to my kind of fiction. I’ve called the book No Time to Die and would describe it as a crime/mystery novel. The word count is about 62,000 words: well short of my usual book length, but I’ve messed about with this one for so long, I decided it was time to finish it and get it on-line ASAP. This was a book that, a few months ago, I never expected to finish. But I have and now I can unwind a little. Might even start thinking about my next book!

Over the last few weeks, I have tended to buy little things for Pat: things she’s mentioned that she might need or want. I bought her a drink flosser; one of those spinners that you can use for frothing your coffee up. It comes in handy when I make her a milk drink. But the other day she thought she might have to use drinking straws if her chemo affected her mouth too badly, so I bought some. However, I never expected her to put them in jar. She thought they looked that pretty, they were better on display. Cheaper than flowers too! Whatever next? Wish me luck!

Comma, comma, comma, chameleon

July 13^th. 2019

First full week of Pat’s chemo and she’s holding up well. She has been on steroids — they finished yesterday — and now we can see a downturn. Hopefully she’ll stay strong, certainly until we see the specialist on Monday for a review. We both know what to expect as the days go by, so it’s now a case of being careful with her and making her as comfortable as we can. We went along to a wig makers in Chichester during the week. Spent half an hour or so talking about wigs. Pat will be trying some on in a couple of weeks’ time and will make a decision then. I could do with one myself, come to think of it. Well, maybe not.

I finished the edit of my WIP and I’m now working through it, making the changes I need. Trouble is, I sometimes come across a red question mark that means nothing to me, and have to spend time puzzling out what I wanted to do. It hasn’t happened that often, I’m pleased to say. So far I’m about one third of the way through the book. Once that’s done, I’ll need to put some polish on to the presentation: things like editing the header with the title, choose a chapter heading style and include a table of contents. One other element of getting it right as far as I’m concerned, is making sure the text is justified. I don’t like to see eBooks that follow a growing trend to left justify the text. I would also like to know who came up with the idea in the first place and why? I still can’t make up my mind about asking for beta readers though. I know there are probably half a dozen of my subscribers who would read the book for me, but I need the whole thing ready for publishing before the end of August. Just something else for me to think about.

My Facebook campaign is having a reasonable success thus far. This month I have shifted sixty copies of the book I’m advertising: The Boy from Berlin. I have also started selling a few on the other on-line stores like Kobo, B&N and Apple. This is through D2D. I have sold a few of my other titles as well, so I’m looking at about eighty sales by the end of July. Once the campaign is finished, I expect a trickle effect before the sales dry up. Then I may consider advertising another of my titles before going back to this one. That will not be until after Stuart Bache has redesigned the jacket. And really, I need him to do this so I can get it into Amazon eBook competition before the end of August. The cost of my campaign is higher than the return I’m getting, but I look at that as being worthwhile until I can get the hang of advertising successfully.

As a member of Mark Dawson’s SPF group, I received an email from him talking about where he came from as an Indie writer six years ago to where he is now. He asked us what lessons we’ve learned from our experience that would be of use to others starting out on their indie journey. Well, I began my indie journey probably a year before Mark, so it’s obvious he knows what he’s doing and I don’t. But the single most important lesson I learned was never to blame your editor, proof-reader, copy editor or whatever you want to call them for any mistakes in the finished book. I started my indie journey by allowing a colleague in Australia to format my book, North Slope, for Kindle. I gave away 40,000 copies in a promotion and later discovered there were no commas in the book! I had to accept the blame because, as the author, I had to be the last person to see the book before it went off to the printers. Or in that case, to Amazon KDP. Mea Culpa. Hopefully I’m well past those kind of massive errors, and my next book will be perfect. Wish me luck.