Rights and Wrongs

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!

What's the point?

How mighty is the ‘Zon’? I queried the fact that the paperback version of Hell’s Gate shown on their dot.com website, was the wrong one, and that the right one was shown on the UK product page. The answer I received still baffles me: it is because Amazon.com only work to one decimal point that they could not show the latest copy of my book because the trim size is 5.25 inches (x 8”). I know; I couldn’t either. This vast, unstoppable monolith that consumes all markets in its wake and gobbles up small businesses was brought to its knees by a decimal point. Someone should write a book about it.

I completed the questionnaire for Santonu Dhar during the week, which he transposed into an interview for his website. It’s standard fare really, but nevertheless it’s another contact in another part of the world. And my thanks to Santonu for doing this. The link is http://bit.ly/2nhmdMx. I also heard from a chap who our CHINDI group made a connection with some time ago — Jamie Dyer of South Waves Radio. He is back in business doing author interviews for his on-line radio station. We haven’t been in touch for over a year, so it was nice to know that he is back. We should be hooking up soon to record an interview.

I’m dithering again — procrastinating is the word. I was playing around with my website, which definitely needs some work on it, and also trying to add five chapters which are an extension to my novel, The Eagle’s Covenant. The intention was to send it to my subscribers, but as I read through them, I realised that these should be allowed to run into a full length novel. The question was, how could I do that when I don’t have a plot? Then I read something from David Gaughran that pointed me to the author, Libbie Hawker. She has written a helpful instruction book called Take off Your Pants. Libbie had her first book traditionally published, but had written it without a planned plot line: something I tend to do with most of my stuff. So, getting back to the Covenant, I began to think about turning this book into a trilogy, simply to compete with the writers who self-publish their series novels successfully. What I needed was a pre-panned plot line with an arc covering the three books. Could I do it? Could I really come up with something that would mean putting myself in a literary straitjacket? Well, I’m going to give it some serious thought once I have picked the bones out of Libbie Hawker’s book. Oh, I messed up my website by the way: managed to delete it and had to delve into the site history to get it back.

My wife and I went to the pictures yesterday. We saw The Darkest Hour. It was a brilliant performance by Gary Oldman playing Winston Churchill. I remember when I was stationed with the RAF Airfield Construction Branch in 1963, being “volunteered” on to the Guard of Honour with about fifty other poor souls. We spent the most part of that year rehearsing for Winston Churchill’s State funeral. We became very good at marching, forming two lines from three on the march, rifle drill to bring us to “arms reversed at rest” as the cortege went by. But I never did get to his funeral because I was posted to Germany before Churchill died. People of my age will remember the great man, and I can only hope that the younger generation will understand just what he did for us when Hitler’s tyranny decimated Europe.

News of Tuppence and her weight loss programme. She almost blew it! Pat left a ham sandwich in the wrong place for about one minute. Tuppence got to it and practically devoured the lot. My wife was furious, but I couldn’t help laughing; Pat’s anger was with herself really because she was so looking forward to that sandwich (she’s on a diet too). You’ve got to love them, haven’t you?

Next week (tomorrow evening) begins with me preaching my first sermon at our church as a fully-fledged member of the preaching team. Then somehow I must get to grips with my WIP and the idea of writing a trilogy. Good thing the first one is already in the bag. Wish me luck!

Still operating beneath the radar

The old adage about never judging a book by its cover rings true when trying to decide on what would make a good cover for your novel. I now have the paperback rights to my title, The Boy from Berlin (I don’t have the ebook rights though), and I knocked up a jacket which I like, but probably won’t use. The image here is just something I like, but doubt if I can use it. I need to give some thought to the fonts, and decide whether I should use the dazzling background. After all, what kind of book does this image suggest? If any of you want to make a comment, please do, because I can’t make up my mind. I’ll probably spend some time playing around with different options. The book has been available for about five years now. I’ve sold very little — I mentioned the reason why last week, but I think it would be nice to have it available in print for all the upcoming events I’m hoping to attend in the coming year.

My book sales flattened off on Amazon. I sold zero for about six days. I picked up a little on D2D, which means sales on Kobo, Apple and B&N most probably. Amazon popped up yesterday, which meant they hadn’t suddenly stopped operating. The advice I got from David Gaughran’s video on promotion & marketing, was to ignore Amazon and concentrate on the smaller sites. This was the low hanging fruit, but by drip-feeding this area, the harvest will improve. He suggested that Amazon was so vast, so over-stuffed with hundreds and thousands of ebooks, that it was a veritable minefield for authors like me. To venture into this minefield meant needing the protection of a big marketing budget and a professional approach. It makes sense to me, although I still use BB ads on Amazon as well as the other sites.

I received an email from a writer, Santonu Dhar, in Pakistan who wants to interview me for his magazine. Naturally I said I would be delighted. He has sent me a huge list of questions, but fortunately he only wants me to answer seven (my choice). I have to go back to the “low hanging fruit” example because I have been advertising, through BB, in India lately, and maybe, just maybe, this is one result from that. We’ll see.

I have made a little more progress on my WIP. I’m re-writing each chapter and changing the way in which I’m presenting my characters. It still makes tricky writing, particularly as I don’t know how the book will end. I know I should work backwards — have and ending and work my way towards it. I wish it was that easy.

I finally managed to get the right copy of my paperback, Hell’s Gate delivered from Amazon. I had to remove the book from Ingram Spark to prevent them printing the Amazon order. It seemed the only, logical way to go. So, having now sorted that out, I have contacted Amazon because they have the wrong version on the American product page. I gave them the necessary details which they have passed on to CreatSpace. Phew!

I have just finished reading a psychological thriller (Lost Identity) written by the ex-Chindi author, Ray Green. His fans will enjoy it no doubt, but I still find myself reading thrillers very guardedly. I’m now reading Mark Dawson. This is the guy who, six or seven years ago was unknown. Now he’s off to Denver shortly for talks with the film producer who will be making a TV series (I believe) about Mark’s character, John Milton. Mark’s SPF course, of which I’m a member, is like gold dust for any budding writer who wants to learn all aspects of promotion and marketing. It takes a lot of time and dedication though: kind of eats into your writing time. (Poor excuse, I know).

On the domestic front, my temporarily repaired tooth broke into small pieces a couple of days before I went back to the dentist. It meant she couldn’t complete the job of fitting a crown, so she checked the root canals were filled OK, and banged a ‘temporary’ filling in. She offered to fit the crown but couldn’t guarantee it. So, nothing to pay now and fingers crossed my temporary filling will last a long time.

Tuppence is practically on a starvation diet to get her weight below 10Kg. We’re nearly there. Me and Pat feel very guilty, but know it’s the best thing for her. Her ‘Treets’ are chopped pieces of carrot, and she’s only allowed just a miniscule share of my bag of crisps. It’s tough, but I can handle it — I just hope the little darling understands.

Oh, yes: me and Pat celebrated our 58th. Wedding anniversary yesterday. I can’t expect another fifty eight years, but hopefully we’ll keep going for a lot longer yet. Wish me luck”