It's all a bit of a puzzle

February 24^th. 2019

I’m almost ready to publish my pulp fiction thriller which I have titled HUNTED. I changed the title several times in my mind and each time got more and more doubtful about whether I’d ever come up with something suitable. I watched an eight minute video on Reedsy about choosing a title, but I’m afraid the lady was so far removed from my type of fiction, I knew I wasn’t going to get much out of her. So back to the drawing board and up came the title. I have paid for a cheap jacket from Fiverr.com. The sample jackets from the designer called Histart looked pretty good, so I’ve gone for the cheap, £25 option. That will give me the eBook, print and 3D versions. The jacket should be available once I’ve provided a photo and a bio. Hopefully I can accept what Histart has come up with. We’ll see.

I’m not making much headway with my book sales, so I’ve tweaked my AMS ad and my BookBub ad., which is for Past Imperfect, but it doesn’t seem to be working because my sales so far are for my other titles. I’ll wait another week and if the situation doesn’t improve I’ll bin the ad and spend money on my thrillers.

I became involved in a Facebook post about subscriber engagement the other day. I said my subs seemed only to be interested in anything free, because there is no real engagement with them. I was told it was probably because I was trying to sell them something. I pointed out that I hadn’t offered them the opportunity to buy one of my books for over a year, but had been giving them an occasional freebie. It comes down to how we interpret the advice we’re given about connecting with our subscribers. Nick Stephenson believes you shouldn’t be too ‘salesy’. But should offer snippets, talk about your characters, what drives you as a writer etc. I’ve also been advised not to contact subscribers too often because they’ll get fed up. So, what to do? I have six people reading HUNTED at the moment, which was the response I had when I asked for volunteer readers. I will send an email to my 1200 subs when the book is available on Amazon, but I won’t give it away. I’ll probably offer it at £0.99 for a week before banging the price up: see what happens.

On the domestic front, I’m taking Pat to St. George’s hospital in London tomorrow where she’ll be admitted for a procedure to determine the type of cancer she has. Last Monday, we spoke to the Cardiothoracic surgeon who will be doing the op. and he said Pat defies all medical logic; meaning they should have known by now what cancer it is. We can only hope and pray that this time the biopsy will be a success. She’ll be under a general anaesthetic for the op, but should be out by Thursday, maybe Friday.

I lived a couple of miles away from that hospital down the Garratt Lane when I was a kid. I told the surgeon I was in the hospital about 72 years ago. I might take a drive down the lane when I bring Pat home. The estate where I was brought up is the same estate where the current Mayor of London lived. Naturally this was years after my domicile there, and I’ve no doubt the ethnicity now is totally different.

It’s a bit of a puzzle; writing a thriller, deciding on a title and diagnosing Pat’s cancer, but I’m sure we’ll get there in the end. Once I’ve got this week out of the way (I’ll be travelling up to Tooting each day), and have Pat back home and settled, I might be able to pick up my current WiP and make headway with that. Wish me luck!