Bonfire of insanity

This weekend in UK there will be fireworks and bonfires when we will all be celebrating Bonfire Night — the burning of effigies representing Guy Fawkes who tried to blow up Parliament in 1605. It became known as the ‘Gunpowder Plot’. It has been said that Guy Fawkes was the only man to enter Parliament with honest intentions! My Chindi colleague, Carol Thomas, has penned a lovely blog celebrating dear Mr. Fawkes, and has included some memories from our members about their experiences on bonfire night. You can read Carol’s blog here: http://bit.ly/2P8cg42.

I sometimes feel my efforts at completing a book and immersing myself in promotion and advertising are simply stoking an imaginary bonfire and they are all going up in smoke, but last Sunday I was at the UK Southern Book Show in Worthing and managed to sell six books. That’s quite an achievement for me at such an event; after all, I was one of probably fifty authors showing their books. The competition was pretty good, so I came away with a smile on my face. I met some interesting people: some were published writers, others were wannabe authors and some were just readers. I sometimes feel as if I’m being tested when an established writer asks me pertinent questions about my role as a writer. Two guys turned at my table: Alex Shaw and a colleague of his who had been nominated for the Thriller of the Year by the International Thriller Writers in USA. That’s gold standard in my world. It turned out these two had nothing to learn from me, even though I’ve been in the game longer than them.

I have now ventured into the world of Instagram. Having watched Bex Gorsuch on an SPF podcast, I decided to have a look into it. That’s when I discovered I already have an Instagram account — in Spanish! I think I’m my own worst enemy at times when it comes to social media and how to use it. Anyway, I’m making a stab at it, learning from Bex’s videos and private Facebook group. Should be there by Christmas with a bit of luck. I have to change the language on my home page to English, but for some reason it will not default to that language. Yes, I went on to the support page: it told me exactly what to do except that particular operation isn’t available on my account. Must be because it originated in Spain and hasn’t been used for a few years. Perhaps I need to download the latest version. On second thoughts, why bother?

I’m making progress with my WIP and cracking the whip over myself as a result of posting part one of Natasha’s Story to my subscribers last week. I lost eighteen subs as a result of that: something that usually happens when I post to them. My open rate was about 25%, which isn’t too bad. It means about four hundred subs opened the email. I asked them to make comments about Natasha’s story if they wanted to, but nothing yet. I live in hopes.

So, what’s next? I expect to get an official response from my publisher about the eBook rights to my romance, Past Imperfect. I have had the email from them, but now need to see they have unpublished the eBook before I can republish. Wish me luck.

Re-engaging and living in hope.

Pat and I have just returned from a five week trip abroad which included two weeks with our son Stephen in Australia. Stephen took two years to build a house: two years of hard work, legal stuff, dilemmas and dramas, deadlines, and the need to work at his normal job as an Air Traffic Controller in the Royal Australian Air Force. Why am I telling you this? Because his dedication and doggedness meant that he achieved his dream, and it kind of inspires me to keep on working at what I perceive my dream to be. I won’t say ‘no matter how long it takes’ because I’m of an age where that phrase may not be appropriate. But no matter; my WIP will receive my constant attention, and to achieve that, I’m about to hang myself out to dry by posting extracts on my Newsletter. Some of you might say I’m daft, but I need someone to crack the whip, and maybe the thought of my subscribers waiting for another instalment will help.

I mentioned last week that I now have the rights back to my Romance, Past Imperfect. I asked one of my Chindi authors for some advice about where I might find an on-line publisher. She told me that she believed on-line publishers want to establish a relationship with their authors, and in view of the genre in which I write, they may not see any future in publishing me. I can understand that so will keep that in mind when I keep getting rejections. The other small dilemma I have is whether to use a pen name. I’m not really keen on the idea, but it’s something else I need to consider. I talked it over with Pat; she said I might have to become a romance writer if Past Imperfect started out-selling my other titles.

Tomorrow (Sunday 28th) I’m off to the UK Southern Book Show at Worthing (on the south coast). Events like these offer an opportunity to meet potential readers, let them get to know you and, hopefully, sell some books. This will be the second such show this year in Worthing. I sold a couple of books then, if I remember. It would be nice if someone came up to buy more of my books because of meeting me at that earlier event.

More irons in the fire? Yes; I’m going to resurrect my Instagram platform. It’s another avenue to pursue, but I need to exercise a measure of control over how much time I spend on Social Media rather than writing. I often feel that platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat etc., go through popularity troughs, depending on the success, or lack of it, that they offer. So for me I’m going to try an Instagram kick, but just to be on the safe side, I’ll still use AMS and BookBub ads.

What’s next on the horizon? Well, Christmas will be upon us before we know it. I also have another book event to do, and also some legal business to deal with for our Chindi group. Something tells me that I’ll be arriving at 2019 with that New Year’s resolution all prepared. But it could simply be a repeat of what I promised myself at the beginning of this year. Oh, and back to that newsletter business: this is the link I’ll be sending to my subscribers. http://bit.ly/2AsgiLp. Wish me luck!

The Eagle has landed

Safely back home after a five week sojourn in Australia, the Middle East and Singapore. Like my writing; this was a marathon, not a sprint. As much as me and Pat enjoyed our time, we are glad to be back home. But now the work begins: bills to be paid, business to catch up with and a time to contemplate the promises I made to myself with respect to my writing and adding more effort to my application. No more procrastination I hear you say? Hopefully not. The photo (for those who can see it) sums up the plight of many writers: unknown, constantly writing in hope, and papering the walls with rejection slips. We came across this in Chinatown, Singapore. I admit I had some moments of inspiration and began writing an addition to my current WiP. I’ve introduced a character who was never meant to be part of my story, but the change has given me inspiration and the hope that I can now move forward and get to the end of my own particular marathon.

Another small progress I‘ve made is to finally get the eBook rights from my publisher for my novel, Past Imperfect. Because this book, which is available in paperback, can only be classed as a Romance, I need to consider a different approach to promoting it. It’s quite a departure from my usual bag of mixed genres, that I can only see a new readership being interested. But how do I get to them? And although the eBook has been available for a few years, my publisher has achieved virtually no sales with it. That means I can look at it as a new book. If I can make real progress with my WiP, it could mean two books launched within a couple of months of each other.

I see there have been a lot of complaints made against Amazon for the apparent lack of sales over the last month or two. I’ve seen this on the SPF Facebook group mainly (Mark Dawson’s crowd). People are suggesting that Amazon (and in some respects, Facebook) are not reporting the figures correctly or are unable to. But I smile when I hear complaints that sales have dropped from a thousand a month to about five hundred. Or even $1000 down to $500. Those smaller figures are almost stratospheric to me. I’m lucky to be selling one book a day, even when I doing well. So that’s why there’s a smile on my face. And yes, my sales this month have been abysmal, but I put that down to me being away on holiday for five weeks and not tweaking my ads on AMS and BookBub. However, I can’t help but think that Amazon has a tiger by the tail and it’s difficult to control.

One joy of returning home after five weeks away was to see our little Cockapoo, Tuppence, come hurtling through the gate when she was brought home by the dog-sitting company. She was yelping, twirling and doing all kinds of somersaults. It was so good to see her. It’s funny how you can get emotional about a furry little animal, but they steal your heart, don’t they? Next on the agenda is to settle down, get practical and get on with the routines, the writing and all that comes with it. Wish me luck!