Making headway (April 2022)

 

 

March is a busy birthday month for my family: my birthday (81), my son, Terry, and his wife, Claire. Consequently I saw a fair amount of our offspring, which is nice. I also spent some time chatting with our youngest boy, Stephen, in Australia, and while we were talking, John turned up, so he got a chance to chat with his brother. John and I went up to Norfolk for a weekend with the eldest boy, Vincent, and his wife, Jackie. So all in all, I’ve been blessed.

 

Another step in my ‘rehabilitation’ was finally paying for my week in Ireland: a writer’s retreat break for seven days, organised by my American publisher, The Wild Rose Press. I also submitted an extract from my current work for a critique by the CEO who will be leading the ‘Tour’. Yes, it’s called a tour because it won’t be about books all the time; we are also getting to tour the area around Galway. There will be twelve of us, but only me from the UK; the others are from the USA. The extract, by the way, was the first fifteen pages of my W.I.P, which will be returned to me in time for the break.

 

When my Irish holiday is finished, I will be flying back to London and staying for the Self-Publishing Show Live at the South Bank Centre. It’s a two day bash, but I’ll be there a couple of days earlier, which mans some downtime and a look around the city where I was brought up. Well, me and my brothers were often up the West End getting up to mischief. Happy days.

 

I am making steady progress with my current book. The working title is “Desolation”, which has nothing to do with Wyoming, where the story is set. I’ve just reached the 30,000 word mark, so still a long way to go. I’m hoping I will have broken the back of the story by the time I pitch up in Galway.

 

I began the month putting ads on FB, Amazon and BookBub, but within a week, I’d pulled FB and BB. Amazon lasted a couple of weeks. Complete waste of time (I’m useless at marketing), so I opted for a one day ad on ENT, and another burst on Reedsy (I think). So far this month I’ve sold 39 books. That’s like four or five months of sales all squashed up into four weeks. Hasn’t cost the earth and will probably be the way I’ll go until I can see organic growth pushing up the numbers.

 

Another venture I’ve taken is to start a course on TikTok. This is being run by two American ladies, Lisa Dubois and Jane Rylan. They are both phenomenally successful with their book sales through TikTok. I saw them in a podcast on Mark Dawson’s SPF. They gave us a short, five day course (ten minutes each day) to introduce us to TikTok. They have now come up with a brilliant, full length course, which is free to all paid up members of SPF. I made up my mind to stick to it, concentrate and make it my ‘go-to’ app for book promotion. Only time will tell if I have the staying power, but I do need to work at it, so I’ve made that promise to myself.

 

Some time ago I offered local residents on the small estate where I live, the opportunity to get some good advice on publishing a book. The idea as for anyone who wanted to write their own story, maybe for the grandchildren, and didn’t know how. I wasn’t offering a course, just a couple of hours of free instruction to help them on their way. I had one reply. Thankfully the chap came to my house and we spent a couple of hours dotting the eyes and crossing the tees. He went away happy. Hopefully he’ll make the effort. I had another request from a different source. We set a date but the lady bailed out at the last minute. Nerves?

 

So that’s about it for now. From a book world point of view, I feel a little happier and hopeful for the future. I’m even going to join an author group here in Bognor Regis at the end of the month, which I’m looking forward to. Should be fun. Wish me luck!

Storms in Life: my 3 minute monthly blog post

 

Storms in life

 

Well, I managed to get my tickets for the SPF Live show at the South Bank Centre in London. The show will be over two days with a drinks party in the evening. Two years ago, at their first SPF show (nothing last year), the party was on board a boat on the River Thames. I’m looking forward to spending four days in London to cover the show and have some flex time too. Prior to that, I should be in Ireland for the Writers’ Retreat holiday. That’s still on according to my American Publisher who emailed us last week to update us on the planned week.

 

Having looked ahead at what’s to come, I can’t help but feel it might all come to nothing if that megalomaniac, Vladimir Putin doesn’t pull back from the brink. All I can hope for is that the Russian people remove him from power and restore peace to Europe (and the world?)

 

I am still making progress on my Marcus Blake thriller set in Wyoming. Some years ago, in fact, a good many years ago, my elder brother, Jim, told me of an incident that could have had horrifying consequences if the whole thing had played out. I remembered that incident as I was writing up another chapter of my book, and as a result of that distant memory, I’ve used it.

 

Last week I downloaded the latest thriller, Blood Tide, by Neil Lancaster. I’ve read all his books (three to date) and was looking forward to this one. But within a couple of pages I found a major typo, by the time I’d got through the first chapter I had come across five more. I messaged Neil with the details and said I hoped these were not deliberate. I checked on another Kindle Reader but the errors were still there. Neil thanked me and said he’d passed the problem on to his publisher. I couldn’t help but point out that the author is responsible for all mistakes in their book because he/she has to be the last person to have eyes on it before it goes to the printer. I think that fell on deaf ears. But it is a truism I’ll never forget, having learned the hard way when my first eBook on Amazon went on offer for free about ten years ago. It had been formatted by an Australian colleague of mine because, in those days, you had to upload your file in html: something I had no clue about. Anyway, I managed to give away 40,000 free copies, only to learn from another writer that there were no commas in the book. Yes, I never checked the final product.

 

I’ve delved into advertising again, only to learn that I’m useless at it. I spent about $70 in USA and £30 in UK and earned about £10 in royalties. I thought I would plunge in again though and have advertised A Dangerous Game on Amazon. I did try setting up a campaign on Facebook, but not having done one for a long time, it bamboozled me, so I gave up on that.

 

During last month I’ve managed some family time despite the risks of Omicron. I spent a few hours with one of my granddaughters (Sarah) and her family, and also with my other granddaughter (Gemma) at her little boy, Orin’s fifth birthday party. Wow! Another family bash was to celebrate my Grandson, Adam’s promotion in his job as a senior cabin steward with BA. A surprise party was put on by his Polish girlfriend, Agata. Great do.

I also managed to survive the storms which battered us here in UK. I always get down to the beach first thing with Tuppence (my Cockapoo). On the morning of Storm Eunice, the wind was fierce, but the storm hadn’t picked up too much, so our beach walk was not too bad. After that the wind speeds along the south coast here reached 80 to 90 miles per hour, with a recorded gust of 122 mph just along the water from us on the Isle of Wight.

 

That’s it then for this month. Hopefully my next blog will be filled with the enormous success I’ve had with my advertising. Until then, stay safe.

 

                                                                                                Michael Parker

Getting Back on the Horse

February 1^st. 2022

 

Getting back on the horse.

 

One month down, eleven to go. Soon be Christmas! Doesn’t time fly? Some people say it’s when you’re having fun. That’s not exactly my world at the moment, but I’m exposed to the brutality and reality of life, as those of you who know my recent history will understand. But I have actually upped my reading and writing game. Not substantially, I must admit. And I do have a couple of things to look forward to.

 

I picked up my latest work: my fourth in the Marcus Blake series, which finds my character in Wyoming. I mentioned in my last blog that I had learned something about State Grand Juries in America, and a lovely lady from the Wild Rose Press (publishers of my novel, Past Imperfect) contacted me. She was a paralegal and gave me some really helpful information; she also offered to answer any questions I might have later. My continuing search into what is and isn’t legal in Wyoming taught me something about how the FBI will or will not get involved in a crime. And it also opened up the world of North American Indians, Reservations, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. I’ll come back to this later.

 

Looking ahead, I have booked a hotel in London for the Self-Publishing Show at the South Bank Centre at the end of June. The last event, one week before the first lockdown, had one thousand visitors. This year the event will be over two days. As I’m due in Ireland for seven days before that, I have decided to travel back to London from Galway, which will mean a day or so before the SPF Show starts. Although I won’t know anyone there, I have two people who I hope will be at the event. If they are, I’ll try to meet up with them over a coffee. Could be good.

 

Something else for me to look forward to is a full-blown TikTok course. Within the SPF group, we have been fortunate enough to have two American authors who have used the platform brilliantly and have managed eye-watering book sales on Amazon with it. They have provided the SPF group with a short, five day introductory course (free), and will be running the ‘big mama’ in February. Because I am already a paid up alumni of Mark Dawson’s group, the course will be free to me.

 

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the funeral of an old work colleague in Kings Lynn. I met about four of my old workmates (old being the operative word), and after that I travelled round to Lincolnshire to spend a weekend with our long-term friend, Pauline. Pauline’s husband died a couple of months after my lovely Pat. That evening we celebrated Pat’s birthday and drank a bottle of Prosecco (pricey). The weekend involved a walk round the shops, a trip to Skegness (I love that place), and then home again on the Monday. But curiously, the whole trip left me feeling flat because it was done without Pat; and it wasn’t until I got Tuppence back and was into my routines, that I was able to, once again, come to terms with my loss and push on with my life. Oh, and it was our 62^nd wedding anniversary a few days later.

 

And that brings me back to my book. I probably manage about 500 words a sitting. I spend a little more time on research for the moment, but that’s something most authors would be familiar with, I’m sure. And I have passed the 11,000 word point. I know I need to up my game on this and get the words flowing, but because I don’t have a plot, my story does tend to take some unexpected detours, which inevitably means more research. I’m fairly confident I will have the book finished within the next six months. Ideally, I would like to have the first draft finished before I go to Ireland. Fingers crossed. Wish me luck!

 

January 1^st. 2022

 

First of all I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year. I’m sure we all wish for a better twelve months than we’ve experienced over the previous batch. For me, mine has been about rebuilding. I’ve had good moments and not so good moments. I’ve had one of my titles published by Wild Rose Press in America, so now I can say I have an American publisher (whoo-hoo!). I signed up for a writers’ retreat holiday in Ireland this coming June, and although I have registered for the holiday and been accepted, nothing has been confirmed with regard to payment and travel details. So as a kind of ‘insurance’ against losing out on that (I don’t expect to by the way), I have registered my interest in the Self-Publishing Show in London which will be during the week I’m hoping to be in Ireland.

 

Since my last blog post I have ventured back into advertising again, but with little success. I’m not too fazed by this; it is kind of ‘par for the course’ for me. I have also been researching a novel which will be fourth in the Marcus Blake series. My efforts there have been sporadic too, but I have learned certain things I never knew. For instance, I thought a Grand Jury was permanent in the States and covered the whole country, but not so; a State Grand Jury has to be raised each time there is a question about bringing someone to trial. State Grand Juries are not trial juries (this is where I could do with some help from John Grisham). I have also followed the drugs trail from Colombia to Canada, paying attention to the various ‘mules’ used along the way and seen how each mile increases the value of the drugs and the cost to the end-user. I have watched videos, been to the local library and used Google extensively. I have hatched out a steady plotline (up to a point) and have been told my story sounds very exciting and I should get it done ASAP. But that’s not me, is it? Mr. Prevarification, that should be my by-line. I do have some worthwhile excuses though, like most of us in the build up towards Christmas.

 

I went to see my Great Grandon, Orin (he’s four) in his school nativity play. Me and his Mum (my granddaughter, Gemma) could only see the top of his head because he had been put behind the bigger kids. Gemma watched from a standing position like some of the other parents. It was great fun though. It’s always good to see the toddlers trying to perform, even though some of them insist on waving to their mums and dads. I’ve put decorations up and taken decorations down. I’ve had a new TV installed and spent ages learning how to operate it and the new remote control. I also enjoyed our last Church House Group which was a Christmas affair and went well. I was also persuaded to take my neighbour and her friend to the Fish & Chip Bingo night (Christmas edition!). I don’t like bingo but agreed. I won’t be doing it again though.

 

The residents of the Park Home Estate on which I live have formed a Facebook Group: ideal for advising people of developments, events, problems etc. I offered to help anyone who had dreams of writing a book but didn’t know where or how to start or were maybe too embarrassed to admit they had such pretensions. I said I would do this for free, and would probably need a couple of sessions, an hour or so maybe, to get them on their way. I had one response, and that was from a lady who was asking on behalf of her husband. She wasn’t sure she could persuade him even though he wrote short stories but had nothing published. I suggested the three of us meet for a coffee, have a chat, and see what develops. She thought that was a good idea. I’ve heard nothing since. Bit like my promotional work.

 

Oh, I received three books for Christmas: Captain Tom’s Life lessons; The Glamour Boys by Chris Bryant, and The Pathfinders by Will Tredale. I might have finished Captain Tom’s book when I come to write my next blog post.

 

So, that’s it for another month. I do hope that whatever you do, whatever you plan and whatever you hope for, your wishes will all come true. Good luck for 2022.

 

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!

 

 

 

Living in Hope

Well, I made the bold statement on my last blog post that I wanted to get back in the game, which meant the beginning of research, promotion, marketing and living in hope. I promoted my Marcus Blake mystery thriller, No Time to Die, and have achieved the magnificent result of two sales this month. I had to pause my ad on BookBub because I managed to spend $47 without even a sniff. Amazon, who simply refuse to take your money has cost me about $12. Not exactly pulling up any trees, am I? But I can at least say one thing: the title of my book has been on everyone’s lips this last week. All I need people to do is to think “Book” instead of “Film”.

I started fleshing out a Marcus Blake thriller. This will be No. 4 in the ‘series’. This one is set in Wyoming. Why Wyoming, you ask? I thought I might just as well jump on the bandwagon and write a ‘Jack Reacher’ type novel. Heaven knows my other books aren’t attracting any attention. My highest ranked book is at about 1.2 million on Amazon, while my lowest is at about 2.3 million. I have to say that being out of the game for well over a year is probably the reason I’ve sunk so low. So if I am to admit I have no scruples: Jack Reacher it will be. I have the makings of a plot, which my sister-in-law Carol, thought was “brilliant” when I explained it all to her while we were on holiday. All I have to do is get to work. I did have a look at my Pulp fiction sequel to Hunted (17000 words already written), but in the end,  Marcus Blake triumphed.

I went on a five day coach trip last week to Yorkshire. Went with my late wife’s brother, David, and his wife, Carol. It was a bit of a disaster. Never made it to York, which was the whole point of the trip. Our ‘optional’ York visit was cancelled because not enough people wanted to go, and that meant the coach driver wasn’t allowed to take those of us did want to go. I won’t go into detail about the holiday itself because I don’t want to depress you all.

 On a brighter note, my sister-in-law introduced me to the joys of Spotify, and I am now building up a couple of playlists. I also purchased a Bose Bluetooth speaker so I can listen to my music or the radio wherever I am around the house. Talk about modern man: hey, I’m almost there!

 As my life settles down to a sense of normality again, I hope to make positive inroads into writing and finishing that Marcus Blake thriller. My research into Wyoming has already uncovered some interesting and useable facts, but I still have a long way to go. Hopefully I’ll be able to report some progress on my next blog in about four weeks’ time.

 

Wish me luck!

 

The Way Ahead

 

Those of you who followed my weekly blog posts will know that I stopped once my lovely wife had passed away. I had already given up writing and declared that I wouldn’t write anymore because I could no longer see the point. For me, life had more or less come to an end. A year has passed now, and on August 18^th, the anniversary of Pat’s death, I watched her funeral (plenty of tears). That evening I went out to a fancy restaurant with Pat’s brother and his wife. It was my sister-in-law’s suggestion; one that I am glad I finally overcame my reluctance and agreed to join them.

 

Two days later I began what I would probably call my ‘Odyssey’. I travelled up to Norfolk to spend a weekend with my eldest son. Then I drove round to Lincolnshire, stopping off at my elder brother’s place for a couple of hours, to pick up Pauline, a long-standing friend of mine and Pat’s. Pauline lost her husband ten months ago. We came home and spent the next few days visiting my family in West Sussex, Hampshire and Dorset. Ten days after setting out, and covering 1000 miles, I was back home reflecting on the way forward, and acknowledging it had been a kind of catharsis; a move ahead in the healing process.

 

Although I had decided to no longer write, the book world never really left me; it is too ingrained in my psyche. I submitted a couple of my books to online publishers, never really expecting anything to happen, when the Wild Rose Press in America agreed to publish my romantic family saga, Past Imperfect. The book was released under their name on September 1^st. I have no control over the book, having signed a five year deal. No money changed hands; they dealt with the formatting, jacket design and metadata.

 

Shortly after WRP accepted my book, I began having thoughts about writing again. I had an email from Kobo about ‘Na-no-wromo’ (?), a yearly challenge for authors to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. I didn’t give that too much thought until I remembered I had already started a sequel to my pulp fiction thriller, Hunted. I had a look and found I had written 17000 words before I stopped writing.

 

So now I’m wondering if I really want to get back in the game. I think the answer is probably a yes but needs a little more thought. I bought myself a Yamaha Clavinova earlier this year (a digital piano) because I wanted to learn to play piano. I played keyboard for years, but playing the piano is something entirely different. I thought that would fill the empty space left by the absence of spending time on another kind of keyboard knocking out thrillers, but I think I could cope with both.

 

This blog post will be my first attempt at getting back to my book world, but instead of posting weekly, I will keep it to a monthly blog (unless something unusual happens). We’ll see.

 

Wish me luck!