Rocky road

May 18^th. 2019

I thought I might make some progress this week on my WIP and reach a point where I could begin editing and reshaping, but it wasn’t to be. We were called in to the hospital on Monday for a chat with the surgeon from St. George’s hospital in London to explain to Pat how he intends to operate on her tumour next week. So that put a spoke in the wheel in more ways than one. I did manage to get to my book briefly but only managed 500 words. It’s disappointing from a target perspective, but means nothing compared to what Pat is going through. Had family here yesterday (Saturday): three sons, two grandchildren (both adults), and one daughter-in-law. Cheered Pat up enormously.

I tried my luck with some ads on AMS and BB. I knew when I created the campaigns that my mind wasn’t focussed enough and as a result I only sold three copies of my book, The Boy from Berlin. I might have another go next week but I’ll be travelling up to London each day to see Pat, so it’s unlikely I’ll worry too much about the ads. Incidentally, when I created the BB campaign and went searching for a target author, I came across my name (my photo) and have been credited with over 14,000 readers. I think that must be a result of my previous featured deals with BB. On my dashboard I am only credited with 192 followers.

I have mentioned in my earlier blog posts that I believe the Indie world has metamorphosed into a replica of traditional publishing, and the more I see interviews or FB posts with other ‘successful’ authors, the more I’m convinced that the bottom feeders are being squeezed out. Just this week there has been a change in the way Mail Chimp will be pricing it’s service by including all those who have unsubscribed from your list of subscribers, and will be charging accordingly. This is to prevent authors keeping their subscriber lists below 2000, which is free, which can be done by automation, a service Mail Chimp provided as part of their free package. I have seen FB posts of disgruntled writers now planning to switch. The biggest of those is David Gaughran who had been a champion of Mail Chimp for eight years.

And it’s the same with us being priced out of the market by AMS and BB. I saw a featured deal on BB last week for Zane Grey, author of many Westerns. I remember my brother-in-law used to devour his books when I was a teenager. As far as I know, Zane Grey has been dead for donkey’s years, so I suppose the owners of his estate feel it worthwhile spending upwards of $600 on a featured deal. And these daily emails from BB often include NYT and Sunday Times best-selling authors.

Getting back to the hospital visits; I’ll be taking Pat in on Monday, operation Tuesday and then probably six or seven days before she’ll be allowed home. I’ll be going up to London each day of course, so no time for writing. It’s a major op on her lung, so recovery time will be quite long. All this to try and identify a cancer that has remained hidden for seven months now. Once they have nailed it, Pat will probably be on chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

Last Monday I posted my romance, Past Imperfect, off to the book reviewer I mentioned in my blog post last week. She has not promised to read it, but will try. Hopefully she’ll love it and kick start my career in another direction. Who knows? Wish me luck.