One for the weekend

Bargain Book
My latest addition to the Amazon kindle ranks is THE EAGLE'S COVENANT. I have reduced the price to $0.99, and will keep it low until the end of June. This is a modern thriller set in modern Germany. The two main characters are Joanna Schiller - the young, English widow of Hans Schiller who was heir to the colossal, Schiller corporation - and Conor Lenihan, ex IRA, ex SAS and a killer. Events bring these two together after Joanna's newborn son is kidnapped by a terrorist gang of whom Lenihan is a member. If you like police procedures, blackmail, cyber warfare and covert figures in the world of politics and business, this is  one that will fit easily into your weekend read. You can check it out at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CJZE6Y0/?tag

Back to Work

Back in harness again and looking forward to getting on with my next novel. This will be a ‘composite’: a mixture of two books written a long time ago but never having seen the light of day. The whole project has been growing on me for some time. I had started another thriller last year, but the advent of Amazon Kindle and indie publishing, along with the fact that I had levered the paperback rights to my books from my publisher meant that I spent most of the year working in that direction. As a result the thriller was put aside with the intention of taking it up again once the Kindle projects were out of the way. I did actually begin again, but then picked up the other project and mulled that over. Eventually it was obvious to me which story I wanted to complete, so the thriller will not emerge for a long, long time.

Mine and Pat’s trip back to UK last week was essentially to see the British Speedway Grand Prix (for me) at the Millennium stadium in Cardiff. I go every year with my son, John. This year we added on a few days and spent a bit of time sightseeing, shopping, family visits and looking round park home sites. We found a site in East Sussex which we both like. Once we have sold our house here in Spain, we’ll be bound for that county to rent and then, hopefully to buy a home on the site.

No startling news on the book front. This is another month so another book will feel the weight of promotion. It’s THE EAGLE’S COVENANT’s turn to be dropped in price. It will be $0.99 for most of this month. I have asked ENT to post it but there’s no guarantee they will pick it up. The last two promotions with ENT were very successful, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for this one. I will also be giving away five copies of SHADOW OF THE WOLF. These are available in the ‘Giveaway’ comp. on Goodreads. Plus – I will be giving away three kindle books on Momma Says Read. So, let’s see what happens. I’ll keep my fingers crossed and hopefully my readers will wish me luck.

Positive Results

Almost at the end of the month and the end of a book promotion that has achieved some positive results. I had a bargain book promo on eReaderNewsToday (ENT) for ROSELLI’S GOLD. It sold 141 copies that day. There was also a trickle follow on of sales following the promotion, but I did keep the price down to $0.99. It was put back up today. Next month I hope to promote THE EAGLE’S COVENANT with ENT, but I will only know if they have picked it up when they contact me. If I don’t hear from them, then it won’t appear on their bargain deal pages.

I have sent two copies of THE DEVIL’S TRINITY to two lucky prize winners in the ‘Momma Says Read’ book competition. Hopefully the winners, both of whom live in America, will put a review on Amazon for me. I have entered another ‘giveaway’ on the same site; this time for three eBooks. And I have offered five copies of SHADOW OF THE WOLF on Goodreads giveaway.

Overall I’m pleased with the positive effect I’m getting through these promos, and hopefully it will mean my readership will grow. One thing that comes home to me quite forcefully is the need to keep on promoting and pushing my name and books into the public domain. It isn’t easy when all this is done on a limited budget. It would be possible to spend more than I earn, which would be counterproductive of course. But I imagine that if I just relied on good fortune and did nothing for my books to sell; they would disappear without trace.

We’re off to UK tomorrow for a week, so I’ll have limited on-line time. It might do me good to stay off it for a while. The main reason for the visit is to go to Cardiff for the British Speedway Grand Prix. If you haven’t a clue what I’m on about, then there’s no point in trying to persuade you what a fantastic sporting event it is: the biggest speedway event in the world.

Oh, another promotion I’m doing next month is HELL’S GATE, but more about that nearer the date. It all means keeping busy even though I still have a book to write.

No blog next week because I’ll be in UK. Catch up with me in a couple of weeks’ time.

Price reduction

I have just persuaded my publisher to reduce the price of my book, THE BOY FROM BERLIN. This is the only title of mine on Amazon to which I do not have the rights. The price is $4,99 (£3.30). It has been released as a paperback in America by Harlequin Books, so I have great hopes for it. The link is http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009R6A26U/?tag

Short blurb: Secrets lurk around every corner as Gus Mason strides towards the Presidency of the United States of America. And from the Nazi death-camps to the steps of the White House, Gunter Haman and Jacob Demski, heir to the Jewish mafia empire, unravel a mystery that threatens the very fabric of the American way of life. However, as Lieutenant Amos, a Newark Police Officer, investigates the supposed suicide of a local senator, his investigations lead him deep into the corrupt world that inhabits the underbelly of American politics and closer to the truth. 

Indie or not?

THE EAGLE’S COVENANT is now available in paperback in Europe only. I ordered a copy for my son, Terry because he designed the book jacket. I always send him the books he’s designed so he can scrutinise the results. I have also ordered some copies for myself and will no doubt buy more at some future date. I can’t release this book in America because Harlequin Books have the English language rights over there, and will be releasing the book in November this year. This means that all my books, eight in all, are now available on-line and in paperback. Now I have to concentrate on promotion and marketing for a while. Anyone know a shortcut to success? Let me know if you do.

There has been a lot of talk on the web for some time now about the conflict between self-publishing and mainstream. No doubt the big five (or is it six?) will not be too worried. I can’t see the threat of indie publishing making a hole in the main industry, but what I do see is the huge increase in digital sales, which will force the giants to get thoroughly involved. And once they do that, they will try to dominate the market again, by hook or by crook. But the advantage that the indie writers have is price. As an example, the rights to my eBook, THE BOY FROM BERLIN belong to my publisher. The price is currently around $9. It is languishing at about 1,000,000 in the rankings. This almost certainly means that it isn’t selling. Even Dan Brown would have trouble selling an eBook at that price. My eBooks are priced at $2.99 and from time to time I drop the price or have given them away free. It’s about flexibility and trying to gauge the right time to promote with a price change. I have an author friend who managed to free herself from her publisher’s contract and is now selling about 1000 eBooks per month: something her publisher was never able to match. So for indie writers, their future is in their own hands, and if they are happy to build a readership gradually, and by that increase their sales, they will never need to consider mainstream publishing.  

Ups and Downs

Some people have good and bad days. Me? I have good and maybe not so good days. My week began on a good note because ENT posted my bargain book deal (ROSELLI’S GOLD), which resulted in 141 sales. There is usually a follow on effect from this, and my other title which was a bargain deal (THE DEVIL’S TRINITY) is still selling; something it was failing to do before the daily deal was posted on ENT. My not so good moment came when I realised that I was in a quandary about a decision I’d made earlier about which story to write. I’d decided that my thriller set in Mexico had to be set aside for another, totally different genre novel that had been running around in my mind for quite a while. I made some good progress on that, but pretty soon my thriller was knocking a hole in my head demanding to be put down on paper again. So I picked it up and dusted it off, but even now I’m not so sure. It’s known as ‘dithering’.

We attended a funeral later in the week which was a ‘not so good’ day. It was for an old chap from our church. We’d been visiting him and his wife for a couple of years. His wife died last year after a long battle with the big ‘C’. He succumbed eight months later. He was 89.

One of the elements of successful sales is good book reviews. But reviews do seem to be as rare as hen’s teeth. I keep putting out feelers, offering both print and kindle files but still have to see results. By that I mean people who have asked for a copy getting back to me. I don’t expect a five star review just because I have given a book away, but an e-mail to say the review has been posted would help. Trouble is I don’t like reading my reviews, but if I’ve asked for them I really have no choice.

I am about to publish THE EAGLE’S COVENANT in paperback for the European market. I can’t put this on Amazon.com because Harlequin Books have the English language rights to the book throughout The United States, the American territories and Canada. They will be releasing this in November. So the book will appear soon on Amazon.co.uk as a Createspace paperback.

Time now for other things like work around the house. Have to keep on top of it because it’s on the market and we want to sell and go back to UK. So maybe while I’m plastering, painting or weeding, I’ll be having a ‘not so good’ day. Wish me luck.

Bargain Book

ROSELLI'S GOLD a bargain book deal today on ENT. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0069TYFK2/?tag