Great expectations.

Looking at my diary I can see January will eventually prove to be a busy month. I submitted my latest book, Where the Wicked Dwell to Kindle Scout. The campaign to attract nominations will run until February 11th. After that, KS will decide whether to offer me a publishing deal. But I need nominations, so how about clicking on the link and nominating my book? That’s all you have to do. https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1EC59ZYJLQ07G . Whether I’ll stand a chance or not remains to be seen. KS (Amazon) say it’s all about reader nominations, but I suspect they look at the author profile and make a judgement on the prospect of selling enough ebooks to make a profit. Makes sense anyway. But if I received thousands of nominations, it would be a no-brainer for them. One of the downsides to searching for votes by the way is that any e-mail to my subscribers results in about ten people unsubscribing. It’s disappointing but according to the author forums I’m on, it happens. Next month I might go back to Facebook advertising and look for more subscribers.

I have my BookBub promotion coming up on January 25th, which will mean the chance of good sales and high rankings, but not without some effort on my part. So to keep the balls in the air, I have paid for an ENT promotion three days after the BB promo. If sales remain buoyant, I’ll keep the low price until I see things slowing down. There are one or two other irons I have in the fire, but nothing guaranteed.

One of the problems authors face after finishing a book is that spell when the brain refuses to switch on to a new story. I know that not all writers suffer that problem, but I certainly do. I find myself imagining scenarios that are a complete waste of time, knowing that I have to be patient and wait until something drops into my lap. There’s plenty of scope in the daily news of course: alleged Russian hacking into the Presidential elections, and the suggestion that a British MI6 agent has gone into hiding because of his involvement. All good John le Carré stuff, but not Michael Parker I’m afraid.

I received some good comments from some of my beta readers about my book. They can’t be translated into book reviews because the book isn’t for sale yet. Reviews are like a double-edged sword though: they can be helpful or damaging. I read many complaints on the author forums about bad reviews and how horrible they are, but we all know it goes with the territory. I’m reading an ebook at the moment that I’m struggling with, but the reviews on Amazon are excellent. It has a few one and two star reviews, but generally the average is about 4.5, so I guess it must be me!

I saw a piece of advice the other day about naming my blog. Well, embedded in my Wix site is the name “Readawhile”. It was one I used when I first started blogging a few years ago. So now it appears on my website under that name. Sounds better than ‘blog’ don’t you think?

On the domestic front — today is my wife’s birthday (her age is filed under secret). Lots of cards and good wishes have come her way though. Next week we celebrate our 57th wedding anniversary, so we’ll be looking for some way to celebrate that. On Monday our Cockapoo, Tuppence, is going to spend an away day with a husband and wife team of dog-sitters. It’s a trial; see how they all get on. Me and Pat will probably find something to do that day, although we have the plumbers here all day doing a power flush on the central heating system, so may need to stay close in case we are needed. Hope not.

So, a lot to look forward to and to hope for. Oh, in case you forgot: https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1EC59ZYJLQ07G. Wish me luck!

Hopes and Aspirations

So as the New Year rolls in and our resolutions disappear, what are we looking forward to for 2017? I know the kind of things I would like to happen, and excluding the usual hopes for peace in the world and the disappearance of poverty and hunger, I look to material hopes. By this I mean something measureable, something tangible; and although I can’t physically touch my book sales figures, I would certainly hope to see a huge jump over my last year’s figures. I’m starting off with a Bookbub promotion for my title, The Devil’s Trinity. This will be on January 25th. I’ve scheduled a promotion on eReader News Today on the 28th. hopefully to take advantage of a lift in my rankings, which I can reasonably expect to happen. I will also look to Facebook ads. and hopefully link the benefits of the Bookbub promotion and encourage readers to dive in.

Another hope is that the launch of my latest book will be successful. The title is Where the Wicked Dwell. I’m planning to submit that to Kindle Scout. It means a delay of 30 days before I know if it has been accepted. The chances are slim because so much of the acceptance is down to the number of votes I can pick up from my followers and anyone else who wants to vote for me. If Amazon rejects it, I’ll prepare some kind of promotion myself and see what develops.

I have contacted two digital publishing houses — tongue in cheek really — and wonder if I’ll hear from them. Having been through the mill so many times before Amazon came along, I know exactly what it’s like chasing agents and publishers: I don’t expect anything to come of it. I have also made a date with another writer (Debbie Mack) for a live interview on Skype. This will take place in March. I will also be doing a cross promotion with best-selling author, Paula Wynn that month too. So, a few irons in the fire, all in the hope that I will see my books rise in the rankings and bring me more sales: something ‘tangible’.

As a new director of the CHINDI book group company (CIC), I will be meeting with my fellow directors next week for a brainstorming session. Sounds posh, I know, but this is simply four of us, who have to meet annually to comply with Company House rules etc. We’ll be looking at ways to improve the input our group have into the area around Chichester and hopefully beyond. We also need to come up with ideas that will benefit the whole group. There are some very good writers in CHINDI, including our award winning writer, Jane Cable. You can learn more about us and our books at www.chindi-authors.co.uk

On the domestic front, we are planning a short trip to Spain at Easter (seats booked already) to say farewell to our previous Pastor, Roy Davies, at Torrevieja Christian Fellowship. The church is having a bash for Roy and his wife, Wendy. They are a lovely couple and have done such a tremendous job for the fellowship. It will nice to see them again, however briefly, and wish them all the best for their retirement. And, of course, we have to think of what we will be doing with our Cockapoo, Tuppence, while we’re away. So now begins the search for a suitable dog-sitting service. We’ve contacted one already and hopefully we won’t have to look much further.

Now you know what I have lined up for the early part of the year. I hope readers of this blog will have a lot to look forward to, and will enjoy whatever comes up. I wish you all the best of luck!

Wrapping it up

Nearly there: just eight days to go. This will be my last post in 2016 for obvious reasons. So much to do, so much already done. Those of you who have been following my posts will know that I am getting close to finishing my novel. My wife is doing the final edit, which should be complete by the end of the day. I will read it through again and, hopefully, not find any more errors. Pat has found plenty of those already. I’m still deliberating over the book jacket, but expect to resolve this soon. My next problem is how I’m going to launch the book. I expect to send it out to some beta readers while I’m thinking about it, but I’m also toying with the idea of submitting it to Kindle Scout. If I do that I can expect to wait about seven weeks before I can publish, which will get me close to early March. Seems a long way away, but I need to push the boat out for this.

Next year the CHINDI group will be looking ahead to improving our book sales and getting involved in charity events. Because we have a Company in the Community (CIC) established, it’s necessary to have directors. The company is non-profit making (by law), but it helps to move any money we make for the charities into and out of a bank account so that we can account for all monies received and distributed. I’m a director of the company along with three other members, and we’ll be having a meeting early January to brain storm our ideas for 2017. We have some events lined up, which we hope will pay dividends.

I have a live interview in the programme with an American writer, Debbie Mack, and hope to be teaming up with other writers in my genre to do some cross promotions. There are so many ways to keep your name live in the public eye, but it usually comes down to how much of an investment you’re prepared to make and for how long.

Looking back through the year I can at least say I have improved my public presence having built my subscriber list up to 1100. I also managed to sell about 5000 books, largely due to a successful BookBub promotion. Now I need to find some way of sustaining that. Meanwhile, let me wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. See you all in 2017.