Michael Parker's Ramblings

 

Sixes and Sevens

 

Looking back on my last blog post, I can see that the smooth operation I subliminally call ‘a plan’ is nothing more really than me being all over the place. There must be a name for it; ‘confused’ probably. I’ve made no more progress on my Marcus Blake thriller other than a token attempt at adding a page or two. Same with my Clavinova practice; I am still playing the same three tunes and calling it progress. I do finger drills as well, but you can hardly call yourself a pianist by playing a kiddies’ exercise. But I digress, so I’ll move on to something more informative.

 

Remember me talking about Past Imperfect? Something like 3.7 million at the bottom of Amazon’s book pile? Well, it turns out my American publisher has sold 23 copies in about four or five weeks. And believe it or not: I may even get to meet her next year, but more about that later.

 

My attempts to cash in on the James Bond title with my book, No Time to Die, looked like a failure. But once the Amazon ads came to an end, I sold twelve copies in a month, and five of those were paperbacks. I’ve started again with the ads: both here and in the USA. I’ll need to keep an eye on them; if they are not performing, I’ll have to tweak them.

 

I discovered a new outlet for my books too: at a local bookshop in Bognor Regis. It was all because one of my writer colleagues, Helen Christmas, posted about the Heygate Bookshop now promoting local authors. I popped in a few days after that and spoke with the owner, Jason, who agreed to put two of my titles, Past Imperfect and No Time to Die, on the local author table in the front of his new shop (he moved from the old outlet he had).

 

Now back to that business of maybe me meeting my American publisher: I have registered my name with a Company that organise Writers’ events in Ireland. It is for a seven day break in Galway in June next year. The Editor-in-Chief of the Wild Rose Press, (and also co-owner) Rhonda Penders, will be presenting at the event along with their Social Media & Marketing Expert. Samantha Keating. I can’t start making any real plans yet despite being accepted for that particular event because of the uncertainty over air travel, covid restrictions etc. But once everything has been finalised (there are only twelve places by the way), I will be invoiced for the tour (yes, it isn’t just the book world, but tours as well). One downside though is that Mark Dawson has announced that the Self- Publishing Show for next year will be held in London in, yes — June, in the middle of my holiday. Can’t have it all, can we?

 

I’m planning to join a book promotion with another crime writer, David de Lee, later this month. I’ve done this a couple of times with him, but not for the last couple of years. I can only hope it goes well. Which reminds me: I won £50 on with the Premium Bonds last week. I don’t win much, probably once every two or three months, but it means I earn more with my bonds that I do with my books. C’est la vie!

 

That’s it then. I do hope you all have a really lovely Christmas with no restrictions, plenty of laughs and lots to look forward to. Stay safe!