Mere technicalities

March 17^th. 2018

St. Patrick’s Day today, and it always reminds me that I should have been called Patrick. Seventy six years ago today, my mother was sitting in a field on a sunny day, surrounded by daffodils at a cottage hospital in Cuckfield, West Sussex, expecting me, knowing that she would call me Patrick because of our Irish heritage (she never mentioned what she would do if I turned out to be a girl). But I arrived the following day, the 18^th., so in a fit of pique she called me Michael. It’s Irish I suppose. My wife’s name is Pat, so it’s a blessing really, otherwise we’d have been known as ‘Pat & Pat’. So to all my Irish readers — Happy St. Patrick’s Day. He was English by the way, so I’m told.

It’s always good to read of success stories in the Indie publishing world. Yesterday I watched the podcast on Mark Dawson’s SPF group with Earnest Dempsey as the star. It often transpires that these success stories are down to hard work, perseverance and the essential element, talent. Dempsey (who is known as Ernie) said it was necessary to find a balance between writing and marketing. He described it like keeping spinning plates rotating on their poles while writing at the same time. I’ve always said it’s necessary to keep the balls in the air, which is a similar analogy. I have already been thinking of trying my luck with Amazon Ads, but still keeping my BookBub ads live. I can see a moderate growth with BB, but Amazon isn’t keeping pace, which is probably not surprising considering the vast number of writers competing for readers; so I need to keep those plates spinning and the balls flying.

I haven’t touched my WIP this week. Just looking at my social diary (i.e., my calendar), there have been too many opportunities to procrastinate, and in the world of procrastination, I think I would top the best-seller list. Or should that be the ‘best time-wasters’ list?

I began the task of updating my profile on D2D by making an author page. You can see it at https://www.books2read.com/ap/xog1mx/Michael-Parker. Any comments? It looks like D2D are making big strides in attracting indie writers to use their services, which doesn’t surprise me because of the positive comments I’ve seen on various author forums.

I had to set up a new landing page on MailChimp last week because, for some reason, my usual one was no longer available. I used MC’s FAQ page for an answer, but I needn’t have bothered. As a result of making a new page, I brought my two subscriber lists together, which brought the numbers down to 1200. According to MC’s figures, I lost 400 subs. I’m not too bothered about that, because I can always use Facebook Lead generation ads if I wanted to increase it. I’ll let it grow organically for a while, although there is a caveat to that: I have started an email promotion campaign with Books Go Social, which means I need to send an email to my subs each week or so with a recommended thriller. The trouble is, every time I send something to them, I get about ten unsubscribes, so I could end up losing more than I’m gaining. I hope not. Anyway, we’ll see. Wish me luck!

The learning curve steepens

March 10^th. 2018

This is the Chindi book group at the UK Southern Book show — the ‘Worthing Event’. There were mixed feelings about the day, but for myself, I was happy to be there, meet other authors, talk to readers and sell a couple of books. The day went on too long, meaning some early departures, including our group. I was scheduled to give a fifteen minute talk at 5.15pm, but it was obvious that I would be speaking to myself by then. We had authors and publishers from all over the United Kingdom, which surprised me because I expected the majority to come from the southern part of the country. Fortunately the bad weather had subsided by then, which meant just about a 100% show from everyone. As for the foot traffic, the visiting public, it was hard to quantify the attraction the show had, despite being inside the theatre on Worthing Pier.

The organiser of the event was Natasha Murray (nmurray.moonfruit.com). It was the first time for her and she did everything herself, which was an amazing and tremendous effort. She has asked for feedback too, and I know there are a few of our group who have shown a reluctance about doing this again next year, but I expect to turn up if Natasha holds the show again. She has already promised changes to the date (later in the year), and maybe a change of venue. My own feelings about these kind of events is that it’s more about marketing, networking and meeting people rather than selling books and making a lot of money.

I’m now leaning towards an extended effort on promotion and marketing. I don’t mean I’m going to spend more money, but I want to consolidate links with potential readers and other author forums. I watched a podcast yesterday about a new writer who gave up her job and spent three months developing a community relationship with potential readers before even publishing a book. The amount of work she put in was remarkable, but the results proved worth the effort. Within twelve months she had tripled what she would have earned had she stayed at work. Now I don’t pretend that I’m about to do anything like that, but it does highlight the need for some serious effort in the P&M department for results to flow. I’ve no idea yet how I’ll improve my social media skills, but it’s something I have to work on.

My WIP has been modified for the umpteenth time now. Something tells me I should give it up and write fairy stories or something, but I’ll persevere and aim for a completed novel by the end of the year. Because I’m writing what is essentially a crime novel, I have to keep going back in the story to drop something in that gets picked up by the main character later in the story. I’m finding it difficult because crime writing seems a little bit specialised to me now. I’ll probably start sending teasers out to my subs list, see what they think maybe.

I am seeing improvements to my BB ads sales. I have overtaken the February figure already, but still have a long way to go and, probably, much tweaking to do. I might have to run a second ad, just to get some kind of comparison.

On the domestic front, Tuppence just about scraped through on her weigh-in, and is now back under our control. Let’s hope she manages to stay slim. Wish me (us) luck!

Challenging Times

March 3^rd. 2018

This week, the weather has put a damper on the country and affected all walks of life. Accidents, people killed, motorists stranded for hours on end, trains and buses cancelled, emergency services stretched to the limit, and the military called in. The homeless have been particularly hard-hit, and so too have those pensioners who need home delivery of much of their vital supplies. So what has been my worry? I’ve been hoping that the UK Southern Book show on Sunday — tomorrow! — will not be affected. Big deal, eh? I took a drive along the coast to Worthing last Thursday to check on the venue and local parking. The sun was shining, there was no snow on the roads, which were bone dry, and everything looked great. Never mind about the rest of the country struggling; my patch was OK. Thoughtless or what?

But we know that’s not the case, is it? I wish the whole country was enjoying sunshine and good weather. And I wish the whole country was out shopping and buying my books. We can dream, eh? The Mystery & Crime book talk at Portsmouth Book Fest today had to be cancelled because several of the writers who were scheduled to attend couldn’t make it because of the weather, so I’m hoping the snow will disappear and people will brave the cold weather to come along to our event at Worthing.

I found myself having a chat with my son about my WIP yesterday, and the struggle I’m having in trying to write a thriller within the constraints of developing a ‘Series character’. In my case it’s Marcus Blake, who has been the central character in two of my books — A Covert War and Where the Wicked Dwell. I’m in a literary straitjacket because of it: self-inflicted, I know. My son suggested I write a pulp fiction thriller and put Blake in when I’ve finished. I threw the challenge back at him and asked him to give me a substantial plot-line so I could write without prevarication and bang out my next, mind-boggling thriller. I don’t know if he’s up for it though, not being a writer. But he’s an intelligent man and, who knows? He might get the bug and become a better writer than me. He can beat me at darts and snooker any day. And if I played golf he’d hammer me, but this might be something on which I would leave him standing.

My BookBub ads are making some kind of progress. I can see some increase in sales compared to last month, but my latest advert seems to be struggling, so I’ll probably have to dive in and have a major re-think about which way to go with this. I actually raised the daily budget and increased the author keywords, hoping it would give me more relevance, but it seems to be having the opposite affect according to my latest figures. So, it might be a case of “Less is more”, and I need to reduce both budget and keywords.

On the domestic front, Tuppence still doesn’t know she’s on a weight-loss programme (I like that phrase). She still wants to eat anything we do, and keeps sitting in front of you, looking up with those lovely, Cockapoo eyes, waiting for you to give her some of whatever it is you’re eating. It’s difficult, isn’t it? Wish me luck!

Building Blocks

25^th. February 2018

Amazon never fails to surprise. The first copy of my paperback, The Boy from Berlin arrived. I checked it out, found nothing wrong, and was well pleased with the result. I was surprised, though, to see the book had been printed in Poland. I ordered another four copies, which were exactly the same as the first, except they were printed in UK. I wondered if there might be a difference to the paper quality, but I guess they have a particular type of paper to be used on all their printed copies.

My sales figures are improving (slowly). Although I haven’t cracked the author keyword for best results, I can see movement. My D2D results started coming in about fourteen days after the beginning of the month, which wasn’t surprising because I created the new advert about the 7^th.  Amazon is also improving steadily. I’m nowhere near those authors who excel at this advertising game and manage to sell at least two hundred books a month, but I hope I’ll get there.

I made some progress again with my WIP. There is an old saying: The moving finger having writ moves on; and all thy piety and wit cannot remove but a single word of it. Or something like that! I find it difficult to change my early plot lines, my character’s situation and the way I think the story should be re-written, but it’s a resistance I have to overcome. In fact, I thought I might have to remove my main character, Marcus Blake, but realised that this was supposed to be book No. 3 in the Marcus Blake series, and he had to stay. I still wonder who’s writing this book; me or Marcus Blake.

I took Pat to our local hospital for a check-up to her eye. Since the cataract op a couple of weeks ago, she cannot wear glasses, and has to wait for another four weeks before seeing an optician. She did think about reading one of my large print editions, just as an experiment. I have a couple of these, published by Ulverscroft. I think they’ve gone out of business now. Their main clients were the libraries in UK and elsewhere, but what with the closure of so many and the withdrawal of funds, book purchasing by them now is very selective. The top author in the PLR (Public Lending Right) is Jacqueline Wilson with 16 million loans — mostly children’s books. So come on you authors of books for the youngsters, start badgering your local library to stock yours.

I preached the sermon at my local church this morning. I was little nervous because this was my first for a Sunday morning at this church, but got through it successfully. Preaching is much like writing: you have to do your research and write something that is relevant and interesting. I believe talent is God given, and believe also that this enables me to be creative and to get some good stuff down on paper.

Next Sunday is the big one: The UK Southern Book show at Worthing in West Sussex. I’m hoping I will meet at least one person who has read my stuff (and liked it!). If you’re local, why not pop in?
www.uksouthernbookshow.co.ukwww.uksouthernbookshow.co.uk. Wish me luck!

Relaunch and sell — how difficult can that be?

17^th. February 2018

I successfully uploaded my book to Kindle and “launched” it to my subscribers four days ago. The response was small: an open rate of about 2%, which was probably what I expected. I’ve had precious little sales on Amazon over the last four weeks, so it was nice to see a spike in the graph. I managed to climb into the top 100 in Organised Crime (73) on Amazon UK, which has been unfamiliar territory for me for quite some time now. I couldn’t get it on to the other sales platforms until I had it on D2D. Eventually it appeared on Apple, Kobo, B&N and other smaller sellers. My sales on D2D have now started incrementing since I created an advert on BookBub. It’s still subjective territory for me, this advertising game, but hopefully I will find those small margins which will give me some appreciable headway. The link for outlets other than Amazon is https://www.books2read.com/u/bpWoXk. The link to Amazon.com is http://www.amazon.com/dp/B079SSJP9V/?tag. The price is $0.99/£0.99. If any of you do download the book, I would appreciate a review on Amazon. Every little helps, as one popular retailer says over here in UK.

 

I’m now waiting for the paperback to be delivered. It’s due today and, if it’s the right jacket, I’ll order a few more copies for the UK Southern Bookshow in March. The reason I mentioned the jacket is because I changed the cover after publishing the book on CreateSpace. It was a small change, but made a significant difference to me. However, the old jacket is still showing on the product page, and I won’t know it has been updated until the book arrives. I had this problem with Hell’s Gate: it took several emails and two, incorrect deliveries before Amazon got it right. They did admit to a “Technical glitch” though.

 

I see a lot of chat on author forums etc. about the need to get the jacket right, and how only a professionally designed jacket will do. I design my own and have a great deal of trouble getting them how I like them. I’m well pleased with this one because of the significance of the background and the flags. The background is the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, and the flags represent the link between the events of World War Two in Berlin, and modern day politics in America. It’s a crime novel, not a political thriller.

 

My WIP is slowly falling into shape — slowly being the operative word. I am now beginning to see a way round my self-inflicted problems, and, hopefully, I can resolve these and move the story forward. Believe it or not, I am now hopping from one unfinished thriller to my WIP. Sounds ludicrous, right? And you would be right; but the idea of knocking out two books this year is something that keeps teasing me.

 

On the domestic front, I have managed two trips to the Gym. Haven’t lost any weight yet, but I live in hopes. Pat is hoping to join me in a few weeks maybe. She needs to wait until she has been checked after her cataract op. This will be in a week or so. Then a short wait until she can have new glasses. And Tuppence is doing OK: she should make the weigh-in successfully next month. Can me and Tuppence do it? Hopefully. Wish me luck!

Life gets busier

10 February 2017

I began editing my paperback, The Boy From Berlin, which arrived a couple of days ago. It’s amazing how many small things leap out at you as you go through the text. I’m a little over halfway through now, and expect to have it finished over the weekend. I made a small change to the cover, nothing major, and hope to be well pleased with the overall result. I sent my subscribers a link to the opening prologue, which you can see at http://bit.ly/2E14ByV. It only takes a couple of minutes to read. I’m looking at this as almost a new book, even though it has been available on-line for about six years. Once I receive the letter from my publisher handing back the rights, I can “relaunch”.

I took a leap in the dark with my current WIP. I had written some scenes that I intended to bring into the story much later, but because of the dilemma I faced in which way to take the story, I was forced to bring these scenes forward. Who’s doing the forcing, I wonder? My characters?

My BookBub ads are not doing too well. I hoped that I could push my African title, Hell’s Gate with Wilbur Smith as the ‘Keyword’ author. I also tried Bernard Cornwell, but that was even worse. So this morning I dropped the price to £0.99, and will create a new ad at that price, but will stay with Wilbur Smith and find another author I can use on a parallel ad.

Earlier this week I created a banner using Vistaprint in readiness for the UK Southern Bookshow at Worthing, March 4^th. (www.uksouthernbookshow.co.ukUK Southern Book Show) It has been “dispatched”, but hasn’t arrived yet. Hopefully it will be here today. I just wonder if my creativity is more of an illusion than a fact. No doubt I’ll find that out soon. Well, well, the postman has just delivered the banner and also the letter from my publisher. I’m pleased with the banner and, naturally, delighted I now have the rights to my book. My publisher still has the ebook rights to my romance, Past Imperfect, but I know I can’t get those until the end of the year.

Last Monday the Chindi group enjoyed an on-line meeting. We use ‘Zoom’ which gives us fifty minutes free air time. We can see each other on screen (well, some of us), but there’s no countdown clock; only for the person chairing the meeting. You can be in full flow when ‘Zap!’ you’re off line. But it’s good to talk and bounce ideas off each other.

During the week I began my course at the local gymnasium. Phew! Didn’t do so well, but I begin in earnest next week. I had a pneumonia jab too. I didn’t know they existed until about a year ago. This was my first one. I’ve had no reaction at all. Tuppence went to the vet for her weigh-in. She’s coming down but has about two hundred grams to lose yet (she’s only a small dog) before the vet is happy. And us!

I took Pat in for a cataract operation yesterday. Traffic was a problem: we arrived at the hospital at 12.45, which was her appointment time. She went in for the small op about three hours later. Thankfully these cataract ops are done quickly, so we were out about forty five minutes later.

Next thing on the agenda for me is editing my book, creating a new ad for BB and finally getting it all uploaded. Then I can sit back and watch the sales figures escalate! Ha-Ha. Wish me luck.

Rights and wrongs

February 3^rd. 2018

I finished the edit on my novel, The Boy from Berlin, and worked on the book jacket until I was happy with the result. My wife didn’t like the jacket, but as we all know, it’s a personal choice. I uploaded the files to CreateSpace (printed book only), and was quite happy with the digital proof. I always do it this way: approve the proof so that the book gets published on Amazon. I buy a copy (free P&P because I’m a Prime member), it means one sale and a royalty. This also means I don’t have to pay the postage for a proof copy from USA. I then go through the book with a red pen and update my files and reload to CS. That’s was the plan until Amazon sent me a “Content validation request”. That made me panic because I couldn’t remember where I’d put the letter from my publisher giving me the paperback rights. I did find it eventually and sent the copy by email to Amazon who accepted it. The book will be available within a couple of days. I’m hoping I can have some copies ready for the UK Southern Bookshow at Worthing next month.

My next job was to ask my publisher if he was prepared to give me back the ebook rights, bearing in mind the book was slumming it down at the bottom of the slush pile, with no sales and no royalties. He asked if I was prepared to buy the remaining stock of the hardback copies he had for a reasonable price (£2.50 each), for which he would return all the rights. Naturally I jumped at the chance, and can now look forward to publishing and promoting the ebook.

I met a member of our Chindi group yesterday: a writer by the name of Paul Asling. It turned out he lives about 400 yards away from me. We met at the local pub and had a chat about our books and writing in general. Paul has one novel to his credit: Love You Till I Die. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07757CZZ5. The book is set in London, and Paul, being an ex-London Cabbie, knows a great deal about the city. I wonder how much he knows about the characters featured in his excellent crime novel?

Paul isn’t the only member of Chindi writing crime novels set in London. Our very own Helen Christmas has written a series, a trilogy, set in London called Beginings: Same face, Different place, https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0078L8858 that could hold their own with Martina Cole

I have managed to get to grips with my WIP, making changes to the early part of the story. It’s not recommended, really, to make changes as you go; far better to write the story, page by page, and then go back and edit. But I can’t help myself because I see things that can improve the story and help me with a sustainable and credible plot.

Next week I begin a ten week course at the local gym. It’s the only way I can get some discipline into the exercises my physio wants me to do. After each visit to the physio, I get home fired up with enthusiasm, start my exercises and then let them tail off. This way I will have somebody keeping an eye on my so I can’t shirk off. There is also a Chindi on-line meeting Monday evening. We use the ‘Zoom’ programme to chat with each other. Three of our members will be involved in the Portsmouth Bookfest, so hopefully we’ll hear a little bit of what they are planning to do.

I had an interview during the week with a local, on-line radio station. You can find it at http://www.southwavesradio.co.uk Maybe it will help me to sell more books. Wish me luck!