Books and Bookshops

February 1, 2015

Over the last ten days or so I have been circulating
round bookshops in the area as a precursor to my next meeting with the Chindi
writers group. I have been tasked with getting our books into retail outlets,
which is why I have been talking to the owners and managers of said shops. But
what a struggle! Two of the shops were advertising closing down sales:
“everything must go!” One was no longer in existence; another was without a
manager for several days, and the main high street chain offered some hope but
nothing definite. With one it was a case of “I’ll make enquiries with head
office and ring you back.” The other main chain offered to look at our ISBN
numbers and make a decision. So it wasn’t all a big NO, but I don’t hold out
much hope. I have still to talk to a private shop whose owner only works at the
shop three days each week. Although she was interested, her shop is so small
that she would probably only be able to fit a few titles in. I’ll be seeing her
on Tuesday with fingers crossed.

This week I am off to London for the International
Thriller Writers ‘meet up’. I’m looking forward to that enormously and expect
to rub shoulders with some of the leading thriller writers in Europe. I don’t
expect to see any American authors because this meeting is for the European
members only. I’ll write a full report on the meeting in my next blog.
Hopefully I’ll have something to write about.

And another celebration for me was the publishing of my
latest novel, Past Imperfect. The
official release date was last Friday, but already my copies and those I’m ‘gifting’
to family and friends have already reached their destinations. One of my sons,
who has only read my books and no other author, couldn’t put the book down once
he’d started. I still wonder why he doesn’t read other authors because there
are so many talented ones out there.

Back on to one of my earlier topics about publishing on
CreateSpace: I am still frustrated by my own inability to produce an acceptable
book jacket to fit the CreateSpace trim sizes. I do get there eventually, but
last week I received a proof copy of Hell’s
Gate, and decided to I needed to make a small change the interior file. I
submitted the file only to have the jacket rejected because it didn’t fit their
trim size. It was annoying because I had made no changes to the cover; only the
interior. Needless to say I have gone over the process again even though I
still am not completely at home with Photoshop. That will be three titles of
mine with me as publisher on Amazon; only four more to go. I’ll probably have
it all sussed by the time I get to the end. Wish me luck!

Finding reviews, sales and publicity

January 17, 2015

I’m in the process of re-publishing seven of my titles
which up until now have been published under the name of Acclaimed Books Ltd.
The reason is simple: I want to manage my own titles now that me and my wife
have settled back in UK. One of the problems with changing the name of the
publisher — in this case from AB.c to Michael Parker — is that any reviews
accumulated can be lost unless you keep the same ISBN number and don’t change
the edition number. I learned the hard way with my first title and lost the
reviews. But another oddity has cropped up: I have a different number of
reviews for my titles depending on which Amazon site I log onto. In US for
instance, my latest upload, Roselli’s
Gold, has thirteen reviews, with an average showing of around four stars.
But in UK there is only one review. It makes me wonder if my reviews are
determined by the website from where the titles are purchased. I’ll have to ask
Amazon. I suspect that my ‘readership’ in UK is very low, and I’m hoping that
now I am living back in England, I can build my following.

I was once advised by someone in publishing that unless
you’re on to a major thing with a publisher; the only way to build is to begin
locally. It has to be the way now for a lot of self-published writers, and to
begin my building project I am hoping that membership of the Chichester
Independent Writers group will help me do that. I’ve only attended one meeting
so far, but I am impressed with the current members who have achieved something
quite significant in the twelve months they have been in existence; so much so
that I am really looking forward to being a part of their programme for 2015.

I do feel as though I have a foot in two camps though,
because I am traditionally published as well as being an independent. My latest
novel, Past Imperfect, will be
released on January 30^th. while my latest title to be uploaded as an
indie is Roselli’s Gold. Although I
have seven titles on Amazon for which I own the rights, until now all seven
have been published by Acclaimed Books Ltd. Now three of them have me as the publisher,
and within a couple of months I expect to have all seven under my name. I am
also using Smashwords because I want my titles available on as many platforms
as possible, and Smashwords are bigger than Amazon when it comes to e-books,
according to their statistics. Can you believe statistics?

I have reached something of a milestone with my current
manuscript: I have run out of ideas! I finished transferring the 50,000 words I
had completed thus far to Scrivener and now have no idea where or how to take
the story forward. My wife says that I am like this with all my books, and this
one is no different. She could be right, but I am concerned about this one
because I started it about three years ago, interrupting it to write Past Imperfect. Oh the things we writers
put ourselves through.

Looking ahead, I have to pick up on my promotion and
social media stuff. Tomorrow I am at hospital for my ongoing cancer treatment,
although this is simply medication and not chemo, thank God. And I have a
couple of thoughts running around in my head with regard to local publicity
etc. Maybe I'll contact some friendly radio stations. Must prepare a sales
pitch though and offer my book for review. Wish me luck!

Starting Well

January 10, 2015

I’m a little early with my blog post this week, but sometimes
I’m a little late. The first couple of weeks of 2015 look promising for what my
progress in the literary world could be like. I have seen a short lift in my
book sales, although nothing to get too excited about. I also attended the
Chindi writers group in Chichester, and will be going up to London for the
International Thriller Writers’ Organization’s European meeting.

Meeting with the Chindi group was something of an
eye-opener, considering the progress the group has made since it began one year
ago. Looking at their website (www.chindi-authors.co.uk) will give it
all in greater detail, but suffice it to say that they have engaged with the
reading public locally through seminars, workshops, TV and radio, and on You
Tube. They have a good programme lined up for 2015 and I am looking forward to
being an active member of the group.

The International Thriller Writers (ITW) meeting came
right out of the blue. I joined this group about five years ago and became a
contributing editor for them. I gave that up after a couple of years because I
could see little benefit for me in what was a predominantly, American group
whose meetings were always held in USA, and celebrated with a big bash in New
York once a year. Many of the big hitters in the thriller game were members
including such big names as Lee Child, Steve Berry, Jeffrey Deavour etc. So for
a small fish like me swimming in a big pool, it was largely a waste of time.
But out of the blue I received an e-mail from J. Penn of the ITW to say they
would be holding their second meeting for European members in February. Having
put myself out of the loop, so to speak, I had been unaware there had been a
first meeting. Apparently it had been held at the home of Peter James: one of
UK’s biggest crime writers. This second meeting will be in London, and I’m
looking forward tremendously to rubbing shoulders with the big guns. It won’t
be a complete waste of time for me because I will be meeting my grandson, Adam,
and taking him out to lunch.

On the home front I have been busy uploading my second
title, Hell’s Gate, to Amazon and CreateSpace. The proof copy of the Eagle’s
Covenant is already on its way (took me ages to get that right), and I have
ordered a proof copy of Hell’s Gate. At the same time I am still battling with
PhotoShop; trying to learn the rudiments of that programme for when I prepare
my other titles for Amazon and Smashwords.

Domestically it has been a time of buying furniture,
arranging hospital appointments, birthday celebrations and looking forward to
celebrating our 55^th wedding anniversary. Oh, and giving serious
thought to booking a cruise to Alaska. Busy times ahead, eh? Wish me luck!

New Book, New Year, New Hope.

January 4, 2015

A new year and most of us are filled with hopes and
dreams for the future. I’m no different and among my hopes and dreams is the
advent of another of my books. My latest, Past
Imperfect, is due for release on January 30^th. Even after all
these years of writing and experiencing the ups and downs of a literary life; I
still can’t help but get excited at the prospect. I feel like an anachronism in
today’s digital market place though, and the literary storm engulfing the
world. Whereas a new release for writers like me was offered at a more
sedentary pace, but one that promised a process that built on the excitement;
it’s more like “so what you getting all worked up about?” Nowadays writers
disgorge novels at an enormous pace to fill an ever growing digital shelf of
mostly, unreadable books; and they lose the unforgettable expectation as publishing
day approaches.

A lot of readers have confessed to having an enormous
collection of eBooks in their digital libraries, and have admitted they will
probably never read them. In the early days of Kindle tablets, I downloaded about
sixty, free eBooks (not all at once) before I realised I was downloading novels
that would never have seen the light of day in the traditional market. But as a
traditionally published writer, does this make me any different from the Amazon
writers today? Maybe because writing is my hobby I can claim to be different.
After all, there are a great deal of writers out there who rely on their work
as a career, and those who hope to make a livable income from it. I can only
hope to achieve success based on the strength of my writing and an established
readership. But there’s the rub: how can I establish a readership when I am
fighting against the 3,000,000 books that Amazon currently has on its database?
I need to muscle my way into this nightmare by promotion and marketing, but in
the right direction and in the right places. Where do I go for advice? There’s
plenty of it on the net. I could spend thousands on “guaranteed promotions” and
sell a couple of books. And whose fault would that be? It would be nobody’s
fault. So now I need to find a new angle: a new, different approach to my own,
old fashioned methods. I read yesterday of how successful one author had been
by promoting in places like Sweden (no Amazon there yet), Germany, Japan, India
among other places. I contacted a national newspaper in Nairobi in an effort to
promote my novel, Hell’s Gate. I
advertised in a Juneau newspaper about my Alaska novel, North Slope. I got nothing from either approach. But despite my
results, I still feel an anticipation building in me as I get closer to my next
novel’s release date. If I was a racehorse, I wouldn’t put any money on me to come
first. But what the hell: it isn’t unusual for an outsider to win. Wish me
luck!

Looking Ahead

As the old year succumbs to Father Time, so we all look
forward to what the following year might hold for us all. I’m no different and
tend to feel a sense of optimism as the New Year approaches. This time last
year I was in the middle of chemo therapy, living in Spain and wondering what
the future held for me. Now we are living in England and I have no worries
about my condition. We are settled into our new life and I have great hopes for
my continuing progress in the book world. I have a 30 day promotion with IBD
(Independent Book Authors) for my title, The Eagle’s Covenant, beginning on
January 3^rd. This is a low key, low budget promotion, but it’s a
promotion at least. Second week in January I will be meeting up with the Chindi
Authors (www.chindi-authors.co.uk) who I hope will teach me a lot about
promoting and marketing my books. I also have plans to continue publishing my
titles on Amazon under my name as publisher. At the moment they are published
by www.acclaimedbooks.com.
This is a ‘collective’: a small group of writers from all over the world
publishing under one heading. We are all “directors” of this group but in
reality the bulk of the work is done by Peter Lihou, the CEO of the outfit. (He
pays our royalties!). Although I will be removing my books from Acclaimed Books,
I will still remain a member of the group. But although I will be fully
independent, I still have a publisher at www.halebooks.com (Robert Hale Ltd) and
Harlequin Books in Canada www.harlequin.com. So I have a lot going
for me and titles out there over which I have no control.

My current work in progress (WIP) is back on the shelf
again, but simply because of the Christmas period and all that it entails. I
have been learning Scrivener and have been putting my WIP there. I’m a long way
from being competent at it, but once I get back into some sort of groove in the
New Year, I’m sure things will take off. I am also learning Photoshop with a
view to buying the software. This is something I need to do if I am to
republish my own titles as an Indie on Amazon. It’s more for CreateSpace than
the e-books. I’m using the 30 day trial at the moment. I also want to trim my
social networking and rationalise it somewhat. By that I mean the use of
Twitter, Goodreads and other associated network forums and sites. It can be complicated,
time consuming and pointless sometimes, but I do need to understand the why and
wherefore of web marketing etc. Pinterest is another which I am told is the
No.1 site for promotion (Free). If I could afford it, I would use BookBub: it
does what it says on the tin and is a great source for writers.

Well, I knew what I was doing this time last year and I
wonder what I’ll be doing this time next year. With luck I will have established
myself as a favourite among readers of my genre,
and have a better grasp of how to manage myself. But we are all in God’s hands
and only He knows what’s in store for us. I do hope that all the readers of my
blog, and my books, whatever your beliefs, have a wonderful, happy 2015. See
you all next year!

The waiting game

No internet today because
we are waiting for a carpet fitter. This meant emptying the lounge and dining
room, hence no router plugged in. It’s amazing how, in today’s world, being
without Wi-Fi tends to render one helpless for a while. So, waiting for the
carpet fitter to arrive meant I could finish my current reading: Lamentations
by C.J.Sansom. This is an historical novel, a best seller, but one that a
Goodreads search could not find. I tried twice because I wanted to leave a
review for a quite outstanding novel. Perhaps Goodreads were ‘wireless’ too!

I’ve begun distributing
my bookmarkers to the family who all seem quite happy to pass them around their
social circles and leave them in bars and restaurants. I’ve distributed a few,
but not as many as I would want. I think it’s because it isn’t something I am
used to doing, or maybe I don’t get out much! 
But I’ll persevere.

And on the subject of
perseverance: I am still struggling to get my book jacket uploaded to
CreateSpace. Not being a dab hand at this kind of thing, I have to use the
subjective approach. I’m getting closer and hoped to have had it uploaded today
if it wasn’t for the carpet fitter. Maybe this evening. Needless to say I did
not work on my current novel last week. I do have excuses, mainly down to
other, unavoidable commitments. I suspect it will be after Christmas before I
can crack on with it.

I had a nice surprise
last week: my title, The Devil’s Trinity,
shot up the rankings after a small promotion. It reached 469 in the thriller
category and managed to sell about 40 copies in one day. For me that is a major
step up, particularly as it was wallowing at the bottom of the swamp. The sales
have tailed off now, but the promotion with Choosy Books cost me $9.99 was a
worthwhile investment. It was a one-off deal the company offered. I’ll go with
them again. Lot cheaper than BookBub, but not with the same results.

I read last week that
Amazon are now third in the top 100 book sellers. Smashwords are second. I
forget who came top though. I also read of the problem Amazon’s new Kindle
scheme is creating for the top writers. If I lend a book from Amazon’s library,
the writer gets a set royalty, and it is the same value for an unknown writer.
Whereas a purchased copy of the top writer’s novel would yield a higher royalty
compared to the cheaper, unknown writer. It doesn’t affect me because none of
my titles are in the Amazon library programme. Not that it made any difference
to me when my books were enrolled: I never made more than a couple of dollars
in a year anyway.

So I press on and look
forward to calmer times when I can get down to serious writing and promotion.
The carpet fitter is due in a hour, and the store just phoned to say that the
furniture will be delivered on Saturday. We’ll have a totally new front room
and dining area then.

Once again, wishing all
my readers a merry Christmas and a Happy New year. See you all in 2015.

Making progress and meeting other authors.

I made some progress last
week with my manuscript, but it was more of a reviewing of my work and learning
to put it on Scrivener at the same time. It will take a while yet,
notwithstanding the fact that Christmas will get in the way. I’ve no trouble with
that. After all; Christmas is to be enjoyed and used as a time to forget the
pressures, whether self-imposed or not, that we all have to endure throughout
the year. I also resurrected my attempts to get an acceptable, book jacket
uploaded to CreateSpace for the paperback version of The Eagle’s Covenant. I’m still struggling with that, but I will
persevere.

Last Friday I met a local
author, Christopher Joyce, in Chichester. Christopher is a founder member of
the Chindi Writers group, www.chindi-authors.co.uk. This is the group of
self-published writers I mentioned in my blog last week. I missed them last
Monday, so caught up with Chris at Carluccio’s in town. I was encouraged by
what he had to tell me, particularly in the way the group promote themselves
publicly. They are not a collection of writers who meet to praise each other’s
work, but use their collective skills to bring their books and their group to
the public. This week they have a stall open in Chichester promoting their
books and providing help, advice and encouragement to whoever wants it.

I’ve noticed a movement
in my book sales on Amazon over the last couple of weeks. Nothing dramatic but
certainly an improvement on November. There won’t be much more now until I
begin pushing the boat out in the New Year. Hopefully my efforts will yield
some positive results. Maybe my bookmarkers will help too. I sent 100 out to
our youngest son in Australia. Some of those will go to America and hopefully
nudge people over there into looking at my website and checking out my titles.
My eldest son, whose job takes him all over the country has promised to put
some about. He’ll be receiving his quota shortly. One of our grandsons works in
Scotland, running his own business, www.brokenblonde.com and often meets up with
people who might be interested, so he has agreed to help. And so it goes on.
Whether it will make much difference remains to be seen, but I live in I hopes.

This week will be a
mixture of visiting family, shopping, decorations (putting up) and all the
usual things that we fit into the build-up to Christmas. Then it gets manic.
Lovely! If I don’t get round to publishing my blog next week, although I will
try, I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.