Rolling On

December 16th. 2017 My little dog, Tuppence made the weigh-in satisfactorily. She needs to lose about half a kilo now, and we’ve cracked it. Now I need to work on my weight. No doubt Tuppence will win. I’m still not succeeding with my BookBub ads. I’m persevering though, and will continue to tweak them until I see a significant change in my results. I need to make up my mind whether to keep them going until well into the New Year, or move over to Facebook ads. I made some progress with my WIP, despite my admission last week that my Christmas lunches were getting in the way. I must admit that it’s taking me a lot of time just sitting staring at the screen and trying to imagine where I’m going. I can see different ways of going with it, but there’s an inevitability of drifting away from the theme if I’m not too careful. I’ve seen a number of complaints recently on one of my author forums about the lack of reviews and the quality. This isn’t something I too vexed about; I find some reviewers can be quite dismissive of an author’s work without realising why they are posting a review. It should be about enjoyment and being carried along with the depth of the story, but some reviewers must feel they are marking a student’s exam paper, and treat it as such. If they don’t like a book, find it boring or poorly written, they should say exactly that, rather than give a forensic report on it. At the same time, authors shouldn’t read their reviews if they don’t want to read harsh words. Had a real treat today: two of our sons came over with their families, and we all went out to lunch. Because of family commitments, it was easier to have our Christmas get-together this way. And as an added bonus, our No.3 great grandson Orin came too — brought his mum with him of course. He’s 9 months old. Such a joy. I entered a short story competition this week: the BBC annual event. The winners won’t be announced until October next year, so I’ll have forgotten all about it by then. I’m not a short story fan, because I look at them as a kind of extended joke: there has to be a punch line at the end. My story was something I wrote a couple of years ago for our church magazine in Spain. I cannot see it making any progress because of its Christian content. Sadly, the BBC tends not to enjoy tales of this nature. Nine days to Christmas now, and still a lot to get through. I probably will not making any progress with my WIP during that time, but I’ll try. Meanwhile I want to wish all my readers a very happy Christmas. I might post a blog next week, but it’s unlikely. Have a great time and I’ll see you all in the New Year.

Weighing up my progress

December 10th 2017 Well, still no real progress with my BookBub adverts. Using an author as the keyword, which is BB’s suggestion, doesn’t appear to open up any real, tangible results for me, and switching authors and split-testing ads hasn’t proved anything useful; except that I have a long way to go before I can say I have the hang of it. I looked up one of my titles (I won’t say which one), published on KDP about five years ago, and decided it needed a little attention. I wish I hadn’t started. But after some editing, almost all minor changes, I have managed a forensic edit and believed it would stand up to scrutiny, but after viewing it on the Kindle previewer, I see there are no indents. I haven’t changed the way in which I upload my Word docs to KDP, so it looks as though I’ll have to do some research and find out why this has happened. I’ll probably convert it to a PDF file first; see if that works. It didn’t — I discovered that copying the whole document to include a table of contents for KDP, meant that the indents disappeared. That shouldn’t happen, but it is what it is, so I’ll have to come up with plan B. I saw a post on Facebook from Mark Dawson of the Self-publishing group. I am one of his “alumni” (that’s his word), so I see everything he posts, which often includes some good advice. He put a lengthy post up about Kindle Unlimited, and is seriously thinking of moving his books there. He gives some pretty good reasons why, and it certainly makes you think of which way is best. Mind you, he is a million books best-seller, so he can afford to play around. I might put some of my books there, but only those that are not selling. That’s a project for next year though. Are you all ready for Christmas yet? Two weeks to go and we’ll be celebrating the birth of baby Jesus. Well, a lot of us will, but some of the younger generation may think it is simply about being nice to each other and exchanging presents. You can always buy one of your offspring a book; one of mine preferably! I haven’t made any progress on my WIP, but I’m blaming the time of the year for that, plus the editing I’ve been doing. We’ve had a couple of Christmas lunches with friends, so that’s an excuse not to do anything, and using that as a deplorable excuse means I probably won’t do anything now until next year. Then the New Year’s resolution takes over. So what lies ahead for this week? Our little dog is going to the vet for a weigh-in. She was a little overweight three weeks ago. I got into trouble for giving her too many treats, which I hold my hand up to. Hopefully she’ll make the required weight and I can resume (secretly) feeding her treats. Not true; I will be very careful. I have a trip to the physio this week; she is going to make me ride a bike this time. Thankfully it will be in the gym and not out on the road. I may even lose weight like my little dog. Wish me luck!

Happy Planners

December 3rd. 2017

Last night our Chindi group enjoyed a pre-Christmas get together at The Dragon restaurant in Rustington. Twenty of us made it there, although not all were writers. However, it made for a good number to crowd into a very full restaurant. The oldest of our members is in his eighties, and is reaching the fulfilment of three years’ work: he is publishing a semi-fictional account of a soldier relative who fought during the First World War. Our youngest member there was a newcomer to the group who writes children’s stories. We are a diverse bunch and cover just about all genres in fiction and some non-fiction. It was a chance, too, to be able to chat with some of the group about what problems we have encountered throughout the year, and what success we’ve had. Success in our case is largely relative, but we all have been able to blow our own trumpets from time to time. We have some good ideas to carry us forward into the New Year, and it gives us all a sense of excitement and hope. We are already discussing our summer promotions in the Chichester Arts Festival, plus we have a couple of things planned for Littlehampton, which should be around the earlier part of the year. And March is something else eight of us will be looking forward to because of the UK Southern Book Show at Worthing. I’m sure we’ll come up with other little gems too, but it does give us some impetus, knowing that we are reaching out and not waiting for things to happen. Earlier this week I cracked on with my WIP, and managed to push ahead somewhat. I still have a long way to go with this, and will probably struggle to have it ready for a summer launch at my current rate of progress. I mentioned my efforts last week about BookBub advertising and the fact that they seem to feature a lot of best-selling authors: some who aren’t even living now. I received an email from them advertising Harper Lee’s book, To Kill a Mockingbird, which kind of reinforces the complaint I saw on an author forum about BB capitalising on the top writers and leaving less room for the indie guys. So far I have received an email each day and only one has featured an indie writer, all the others have been NYT best-sellers. Make you think. Anyway, back on the advertising bit: it is a recommendation from BookBub that it helps to use their list of top authors when searching for a “keyword” writer. As I am trying to promote my book, A Dangerous Game, I searched through their list for an author similar to me. Almost without exception though, the list of thriller writers is populated with those who write series characters. This makes it hard for people like me, a cross-genre writer, to find an author to use as a “keyword” author. I’ve already tweaked my ads, and even changed them, hoping for some positive results. I can’t expect overnight miracles, but there are pointers to the way in which your ad is performing. I’m getting a few sales, thankfully, but at the moment I can expect to struggle. Hopefully things will improve in time. Wish me luck!

Nothing but a dreamer

November 26th. 2017 We’ve just returned from an overnight stay with our son, John and his wife, Bryony in Dorset. It’s good to get away for a while, spend some time with the family, couple of beers, walk the dogs. There’s no time to think about books, promotion, advertising and sales figures because those things will be there when you get home. There’s always the anticipation of what might have happened to the book sales while you’ve been away, and true to form in my case, very little has happened. I checked my BookBub advert (I have two) and find that they will need serious attention if things don’t pick up, but not today; there’s always tomorrow. The planned launch of the box-set hasn’t come off, and it looks like it’s going to fail before it gets started. The launch date and pre-launch push didn’t happen, it’s been delayed now until after Christmas, and cracks seem to be appearing in the overall commitment necessary to make it work. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but leaves me with the sense that involvement with other authors, for me anyway, is not the best way to go. So once this year is out of the way, I’ll stick to my own plans for promotion, marketing and writing. I don’t include the CHINDI group in this, because we have contact with each other by meeting up, doing book stalls and getting together from time to time. In fact, next Saturday, a lot of the group will be at a Chinese restaurant in Littlehampton for a Christmas bunfight. Should be good, and we’ll have plenty to talk about. I made a little progress on my WIP last week, and dug myself out of a hole I’d managed to get into. Making small gains in this writing business does help. One thing I do frequently is watch movies on Amazon Prime, hoping to pick up some ideas. Unfortunately I tend to watch a load of rubbish that passes for crime drama, but I did pick up a little nugget that I will be able to slip into my WIP. Some-time during the week I found myself thinking about music from my past. This was as a result of sitting in a waiting room where a couple of elderly ladies were talking about the youth of today and all that goes with it. My mind went back to when I had finished my second novel, Hell’s Gate, and imagined it on the big screen (it never happened of course). The novel is set in British East Africa in 1898, and was inspired by historical fact. One of my all-time favourite pieces of music at the time was The Dawn by Osibisa. I could see the whole thing on the big screen: my story and the compelling, African music. Ah well, what it is to be a dreamer, eh? Incidentally, you can get the book at

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RW1VTGO/?tag

and

https://www.books2read.com/u/4XGd9m

. I mentioned Hell’s Gate last week and the length of time it was taking to get the paperback file uploaded to CreateSpace. I thought I’d cracked it until I received an email from CS asking me for ‘Content Validation’ for the book. I sent them a photocopy of the rights authorisation from my publisher. Good thing I still had it on file. Once they have accepted that, I can look forward to getting the copy from Amazon UK, and then I can get on to do another, hands-on edit. And as we come to the end of November and look ahead to Christmas, I can see the social diary filling up with various dates for this and that. I’ve no idea what Santa will be bringing me for Christmas, but I hope it will be a ringing endorsement of my books, coupled with a blossoming advert campaign. Wish me luck!

Keeping different balls in the air

November 19th 2017 Much has happened this week, but not all to do with writing. I’ve made a little progress with my WIP, but have been distracted by other things. I continued looking at the BookBub ads training video by Adam Croft to help understand all the information BookBub provides with regard to the ad. I had two running, but it soon became clear that I had made the wrong choice of author to follow (including me), so I created a single ad, and am now following Mark Gimenez. It’s too early to tell how successful that will be, but early signs are not too promising. However, I must be patient. Another diversion was my decision to re-edit my book, Hell’s Gate: something I thought would not take too long. Needless to say it took up an enormous amount of time. It came about because I want to advertise this particular book on BookBub as a ‘Literary’ work of fiction on African, colonial history. I’ve always used the keyword ‘Action & Adventure’ for this book, but now I see it another way. It wasn’t until I started the process that I discovered I hadn’t released the paperback on CreateSpace, so that’s where it will be heading. I have it with Ingram Spark. I haven’t changed any of the text; this was simply a tidying-up exercise. Last Monday, our book group CHINDI had an on-line meeting. Using the website, ZOOM, we get fifty minutes free where we can chat and see each other on screen. One of our writers, Christopher Joyce, gave us an update on his book launch the previous Saturday. He has published an ‘Alien Cook Book’ to complement his Children’s books. You can find Chris’s books in our shop at www.facebook.com/pg/chindiauthors/shop. There are lots of other good titles of all genres in the shop, many of them priced low for Christmas. Tomorrow, I am expecting the launch of my box set along with a bundle of other box sets in time for “Cyber Monday”. This is something the writer, Mike Continues, has put together with others. How successful this will be is anybody’s guess, but it can’t do no worse for my box set than it’s doing at present. The agreement is to run the promotion for six months. I live in hopes for that, but don’t expect much. When it kicks off, I’ll be sending out a newsletter to all my subscribers. Five weeks to go now to Christmas. We are out on Wednesday, shopping at Winchester. I doubt if we’ll get all the presents we need, but it will not be for the want of trying. No doubt we could do this on-line, which would save our feet. It’s something we could do at leisure, but there’s nothing like traipsing round the shops, armfuls of carrier bags, and getting home to realise you’ve forgotten that important present. So long as I don’t forget my wife, I’ll be OK. Wish me luck!

Forging ahead

November 11th. 2017. This is the point where I will be looking ahead with a renewed enthusiasm. I made some unexpected progress on my WIP, and I launched my first BookBub advert (two in fact). Having watched Adam Croft’s excellent video several times, I plunged in and launched two adverts. Using Adam’s advice, I advertised my thriller, The Devil’s Trinity with my name as the author to follow. The second ad., same book, was with Ty Patterson. I looked at the ‘also bought’ list on my author page to find a suitable author. The first one I chose gave me too big an audience, so I clicked through the various names until I found Ty Patterson’s name put me in the ‘Green Zone’. It means an audience reach of about 10K. This, apparently, is a sensible start. The ad. began yesterday at about 4pm. The second ad. will go today. Now comes the tricky part: I have to monitor my progress and tweak until I see an improvement. I will probably look at BookBub’s own top 100 author list to find a bunch of thriller writers who will give me a similar audience to Ty Patterson. I’ll also be going back over the videos. The unexpected progress on my WIP came by ignoring the writer’s block and jumping ahead to the latter part of the plot. I found myself writing quickly and enthusiastically, even extending the idea I had for the outcome. It means that I’ll have a beginning and an end with a word count of about 25000. Although it seems I still need to do a lot, like find another 50,000 words, it isn’t as daunting as it was a week ago. Getting back to the BookBub advert briefly, I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from Adam Croft in response to the comments I made in my blog last week. It put a smile on my face, and it was so nice to get a comment from someone who actually reads this. I was even more surprised to think that this best-selling author (over a million sales on Amazon) actually took the trouble to write and encourage me. Good for you, Adam. Christmas isn’t far away now, and the various sales pitches are springing up everywhere, no more so than our CHINDI group. We have opened our shop for Christmas specials, so why not pop in and see what’s on offer. We have a growing membership in our group with authors who have notched up awards in their writing career. There could be something there to suit everyone’s taste. www.facebook.com/pg/chindiauthors/shop. I mentioned author cross promotions last week. Looking at my sales, I see no benefit, which means I’ll knock them on the head for a while. I am still committed to Paula Wynne’s BookHub Christmas promotion, but that is simply adding one of my books to the bundle she is giving away. http://bookhub.online/readers-news/win-a-book-bundle. So what now? With Christmas Day only six weeks away, it’s about writing out the Christmas cards, getting presents, arranging get-togethers etc. Our CHINDI group are meeting up for a Christmas meal next month. Although we meet up occasionally, and on-line daily, it’s good to get the chance to chat face to face. I’m looking forward to that. We have an on-line meeting on Monday where we’ll be able to see each other on our computer screens, but there’s nothing like the real thing. And something else I mustn’t forget: it’s Remembrance Day. There will be ceremonies all over UK and elsewhere in the world to remember those who fell during the terrible conflicts we’ve witnessed on this earth. I served in the Royal Air Force, and so did our four sons. Happily, none of us experienced the terror of real conflict. Mind you, one of our boys has a chest full of medals. He’s still serving but in the Royal Australian Air Force. He looks like a General in his best uniform. So tomorrow I’ll wear my Poppy with pride and hope the leaders of this world will see some sense. Some hope! Wish me luck!

Learning the hard way: understanding why.

4th. November 2107 When I read interviews or watch podcasts of writers who have successfully self-published, I admit to feeling a little envious of their success, and wonder if I’ll ever be able to achieve the kind of sales figures they enjoy. My wife asked me the other day if I get upset when I see what others have achieved doing what I’m doing, but I told her that it would be pointless getting upset; the fact is these people have worked hard to achieve their success, and that is the limiting factor in my case. I have watched two mega selling authors in the last week: Adam Croft and Hugh Howey. Both these writers knew how to do the hard yards and come up with a solid way to promote their work. I have watched others over the last few months, always looking to see if there was a shortcut maybe that I didn’t know about. But the truth is — its work, work, work. This brings me to a kind of late, 2017 resolution (procrastination got in the way): to try harder. I paid the royalties into my bank today — those I received as a result of the BookBub advert earlier in the year — and decided I would like to do that each month, and watch them increase; but how? Well, this week, Mark Dawson is releasing his latest advertising course for authors, which includes all the updated stuff on Facebook, Amazon Ads and BookBub. As a student of his, I get all this free, so I’m looking forward to dipping my toe in the water with BookBub advertising (not a ‘Featured Deal’). But I know that simply following what I’m told, without working at it, I’ll be wasting my time. So it’s up to me: must work harder. You will all get to know how I’m doing, but it could be a while before that happens. If I was a racehorse, you wouldn’t put your money on me, so I now have to see if I can’t make this old nag romp home first past the winning post. I made some progress with my WIP. I’m at the writer’s block stage. This is familiar territory to most writers. I’ll get through it of course, but at the moment I can’t see how. I sent a short extract of the WIP to my subscribers, wondering if I would get a reaction. I did — 21 of them unsubscribed! You’ve got to laugh, haven’t you? I scrambled through a couple of cross promotions recently and came to the conclusion I’ve been coming to for a long time: they’re not worth it. Others might disagree, but I’ve seen no increase in my daily sales figures to convince me it’s all worth the effort. Tomorrow I will be on a book stall for a couple of hours at our local British Legion. Some members of our book group (Chindi), will be there at the one day Christmas Market trying to spread some literary cheer in the area. I probably won’t sell any books, but that isn’t always the case. It could turn out entirely different. And on the subject of trying to spread literary cheer, our book group, Chindi, are running a Christmas promotion on ALL our books in the run up to Christmas. Almost all genres will be on sale through our website at reduced prices. So why not pop along to www.facebook.com/pg/chindiauthors/shop and have a look at some of our bargains? I might sell some there too. Wish me luck!