Getting down to the root of the problem

Root canal filling — now I know what it really means: one very uncomfortable hour in the dentist’s chair and another appointment to come. Fortunately my dentist knew what she was doing and I suffered no ill effects once the anaesthetic had worn off. I’ve just had an image flash into mind of Dustin Hoffman in a dentist’s chair. I can’t remember the film title, but he wasn’t enjoying the benefits of modern dentistry.

Tuppence failed her weigh-in too. We got an earful from the Vet. We tried to blame Christmas but the Vet was having none of it. So, new eating plan: chopped carrots for her treats only and no extras in her bowl. I’m supposed to be on a diet too, but I know where the chocolate biscuits are kept. That makes me smarter than my dog. And a trifle bigger!

Back to the world of books now and the calamity of Amazon publishing. For a second time they have sent me the wrong paperback: wrong size, wrong colour paper and not the book that is shown on the product page. I have now asked Ingram Spark to unpublish Hell’s Gate. The reason for that is because Amazon have sent the IS book twice, and not the one I uploaded to CreateSpace. Once I know that IS no longer have the book on their file, I’ll order one from Amazon and hopefully get the correct book. When we are back on track, I can order a few for the upcoming UK Southern Book Show in March. Check it out on FB https://www.facebook.com/uksouthernbookshow.

I managed to get back to some editing and writing. I am currently reading through The Boy from Berlin. I have the North America paperback rights now, so I’m anxious to make that available in USA, and need to edit for reasons that have become apparent over the last couple of years. Not having the rights has stopped me of course, and I still don’t have the ebook rights. I’m hoping I might see some change in that respect later in the year. I’ll just have to plague the life out of the publisher; after all, they are not selling or promoting the book: something that I am reluctant to do simply to boost their income. Incidentally, this particular publisher only produces non-fiction work. They bought my publisher (Hale) out a couple of years ago, which kind of leaves me and the other Hale authors in limbo. Hopefully that will change.

I made a little progress on my WIP by binning an element of the story that happened sixteen years before the beginning. Without realising what I’d done, by having to ensure I had a link back to that particular period, I was inhibiting the entire plot. I have subsequently changed character profiles and have begun thinking along a different story line. Sounds confusing, I know, but that’s what we authors do: make hurdles for ourselves. It’s the only way to write a “keep them guessing” thriller.

I am also falling out of love with BB advertising. I still haven’t seen any real benefits to my particular efforts. I can’t blame BB; it’s simply a case of not targeting the right authors as Keywords, and not having a big budget. I increased it from $2.50 a day to $10, left it like that for about six days and saw no improvement or significant change in sales. In fact, they’ve gone down. So tomorrow, I’ll be having a real think about which way to go: Facebook, AMS or stick with BB. We’ll see. Wish me luck!

Eventing

Where do I begin? Well, happy New Year to all of you (that’s from my little girl, Tuppence, as well). I hope it will be a good one for you. I already have a speaking engagement in my diary, but it isn’t until January 2nd. 2019, so the world isn’t beating a path to my doorstep yet, but maybe that will change. I started the New Year well, having been given a clean bill of health yesterday from the haematologist at the cancer clinic. Dentist next week for a root canal filling and a crown. How much pain can I take? And I have to pay! But I’m looking ahead with renewed optimism, which helps.

I plan to continue with advertising, but I hope to be a little more successful. I’m still using BookBub, and the signs are a little encouraging, but not enough on which to build a writing empire.

So what else is there? I’m looking forward to the UK South Coast book show at Worthing in March. I may not sell many books, but there will be a lot of writers there, about sixty all told, and no doubt the foot traffic should be good. The book fest will be in the theatre on the pier, which kind of adds a little glamour to the event.

We have an event in Littlehampton, sponsored by Arun Scribes and Chindi, which will be spread over a few days. Once again the foot traffic should be good, and we’ll have a chance to spread our names out further into the general reading public.

The big one for us at Chindi will be the Chichester Festival. We’ll be holding events during the week and will also be sponsoring a charity. Last year it was Dyslexia Action. We haven’t decided yet for this year.

Another event we like is the Arundel Festival. We spend about ten days with a stall sponsoring Cancer UK. It’s always an enjoyable time, and we do manage to sell books.

There will be other events coming along. Crawley library comes to mind. I went last year, didn’t sell anything but it was good to be there. And my son and grandson came along, which meant we had lunch together afterwards.

Another direction for me is my local church. I have been added to the preaching team and begin at the end of this month. I won’t be able to advertise my books there, although I might ask for a little divine help if my promotion work fails.

Just before Christmas, I gave my subscribers the free gift of my African novel, Hell’s Gate. There were no strings attached to the gift, and 125 people took advantage of it. I had some good comments — not too many because it’s a fact that very few subscribers respond to gifts, offers, discounts etc. Naturally I was hoping to pick up some good reviews, but it’s too early to tell if all of those readers will have anything to say.

But I did have one piece of luck in my quest to promote the book and get some mileage out of it. I contacted Wilbur Smith some weeks before giving my book away, and asked if he would like to read it. I was chuffed when he agreed. It took him about six weeks to reply to my message, so I was not really expecting it when it turned up in my messenger box. Anyway, the book will be on its way to him this weekend. Hopefully he will like it enough to give me a quote that I can use when I start pushing it. Fingers crossed. Wish me luck!

Rolling on

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.