A carousel and a merry-go-round

The week began for me and Pat with an appointment with the London consultant who carried out Pat’s op. He has referred her to the haematologists now having seen confirmation that there is no lung cancer. We now wait for the results of the biopsy tests from the same three London hospitals that gave that confirmation as they now look for signs of T cell lymphoma. Since Monday it’s been a case of getting Pat’s sleep patterns restored and building up her energy levels and getting some weight back on. The waiting goes on however and we just have to hope and pray that the experts will determine what cancer it is so they can begin treatment.

Although I’ve had to shoulder the burden of looking after Pat and getting on with the household chores, I have managed to get some work done on my WIP. I began by reassembling the whole story-line using Scrivener, and creating another draft. I now have an almost complete plot line right down to the last gasp page. With luck I’ll see the end of this particular draft in a couple of weeks, and from there I can get an edit done and think about a suitable book jacket. I may pay for one yet, I don’t know. I’m hoping Pat will do the read through for me as she often does before I contact those subscribers of mine who read HUNTED for me earlier this year. Ironically, I was watching Mark Dawson and James Blatch chatting on their weekly SPF podcast yesterday, when Mark said he was planning to begin a novel once he’d finished his current WIP; it was about the drug business and the County Lines. No doubt he will excel at this, but I need to beat him to it because my current WIP is exactly that: a thriller about the County Lines gangs.

I have also been watching the Mark Dawson videos on FB ads again. They were updated when Mark’s SPF group launched the latest Ads for Authors course. I will dip a toe in the water this week and advertise The Boy from Berlin on FB, and will be using the blurb and ad lines provided by Bryan Cohen. FB has a reputation of sucking your wallet dry, but if I could see some positive results, I might clap my hands. Who knows?

Yesterday I took five copies of my pulp fiction thriller, HUNTED round to Dan Jones. Dan is the Chindi author who has opened a Pop-up shop in Chichester. It’s primarily to promote his own books and his wife’s creative work, but he has shown willing to add the Chindi authors’ books to a carousel. We all wish him and Abbie good luck of course, all the while hoping Dan can sell our books.

You know, when you’re struggling to sell books, you cling joyfully at the sale of one book and hope it’s the beginning of a trend. I haven’t advertised for some time and have seen my sales virtually flat-line, both on Amazon and D2D. But I was miffed when I saw D2D take one of my sales for May and add it to June. There was me thinking I’d sold ten books last month when it was suddenly reduced to nine. And it doesn’t help when I see authors complaining on FB groups about their lack of sales. One lady writer was moaning because her sales of 50 eBooks a day, no ads, first book, had suddenly crashed. She wanted to know why this was happening to her. I don’t have to say what went through my mind. I did smile though.

So, on to next week and, hopefully, some major progress with my current book, my ads campaign, the gardening, the washing, the ironing, walking the dog. Oh yes! Tuppence comes home on Monday. That will cheer Pat up enormously. What a lovely thought. Bugger the book sales. Wish me luck!

Balloons, books and pop-up shops.

My week began with Pat coming home from hospital and me looking forward to having her with me and being able to look after her, not to mention no need for the daily journey up to London. After a traumatic weekend, I decided our little dog, Tuppence, needed to go away for a couple of weeks, so I set that up and sent her to a company called Barking Mad. We’ve used them before and have been quite happy with the way in which they operate. So, just me and Pat and some caring time.

I have also been able to get some time in with my WIP, having come to another decision to change the opening sequence. I’m taking a leaf out of one of Mark Billingham’s crime novels and beginning the story with a violent scene during which no character names are mentioned. The link, if you want to read the short prologue is at https://www.michaelparkerbooks.com/marcus-blake-prologue. Naturally it means a few more changes to the plot sequence, but that’s the life of a writer I suppose.

Another decision taken was to begin Mark Dawson’s ads for authors course again. Mark released his latest version which, as a paid up member of his SPF group, entitles me to all the updates. This means I’m getting it for free. So it’s a case of knuckling down and start again. I’m really looking ahead to July when Stuart Bache will be redesigning the book jacket for my political thriller, The Boy from Berlin. I need to have my head right for this because I have to spend money on promoting the book, and the only successful way is to use the big guns like Facebook, Amazon and BookBub. I tried a couple of small promotions last month, about $30 a shot, but achieved just one sale for the book. When I think back to the beginning of the year, I told myself that my latest book would be published by the end of March, and here I am in June still nowhere near finishing the damn thing. I know I have a reasonable excuse, but I don’t want to use Pat’s illness as an excuse. So, thinking of next month, new book jacket, new marketing campaign to follow and getting stuck into my WIP, maybe, just maybe I’ll see an upward projection in my book sales.

The photo I have inserted at the beginning of this post is an unusual ‘bouquet’ made by our grand-daughter, Gemma. She came over to see her Nan with our great-grandson Orin, yesterday. She’s a clever girl, our Gemma: has her own business too. We’re really proud of her. Perhaps I should get her to do PR for me, although I don’t think I’d sell many books by being associated with children’s entertainment, craft making and, sometimes, dressing up as a fairy.

One of our Chindi authors, Dan Jones, has come up with a brave project. He will be opening a ‘pop-up’ shop at Draper’s Yard in Chichester. It’s to sell his own books, fiction and non-fiction, and also his wife’s artwork. He has suggested us Chindians use his stall as an outlet for our books. We have been invited to put five of each title with Dan. He’ll display one at a time and top it all up as they sell. He’s going to be swamped with books from the Chindi group, but hopefully the project will not only help us but will also help Dan and his wife enormously. I might even sell some of my books. Wish me luck!

Home again

June 1st. 2019

I have a big smile on my face because I now have Pat home from the hospital. We won’t know the outcome of her surgery for a week or so because the results of the biopsies usually take about fourteen days to come through. Now we can begin to get her fitter and stronger. The surgeon said to me it would be better for Pat to be at home being nursed by me than having to put up with being stuck in the hospital; something I think most of us would agree with. It’s been difficult for both of us: Pat having to put up with major surgery and me having to traipse up to London every day. One of the ironies of my visits to St. George’s is that I used to live just a couple of miles away from the hospital in Earlsfield but couldn’t enjoy a leisurely trip down memory lane and thinking how it used to be in my young days. I did actually spend some time in St. George’s myself when I was about five years old. A lot different now of course.

Spending so much time in the car and sitting beside Pat’s bedside gave me a chance to catch up on some thinking and some reading (not while I was driving!). I mentioned the two books last week — well, I had to give up Alex Shaw’s book Code Black. I did try, I must admit, but in the end I found it too formulaic and more like a tourist guide around the town of Kviv in the Ukraine where Mr. Shaw lives. I didn’t give up reading though; I downloaded Her Last Breath by Charlie Gallagher. It’s a crime novel about a serial killer. Although these kind of crime thrillers can be similar, I found Gallagher’s book thoroughly enjoyable. It was well written with well-drawn characters. It kept me guessing about the who, the how and the why, and there was a neat little twist at the end to tie it all together. I’ve now started on another Robert Harris novel, The Fear Index. Should be good. I realise I won’t be able to get through my reading as quickly as I have in the last couple of weeks though.

I have also given a lot of thought to my WIP, which has been ‘Work NOT in progress’, and have started rearranging the chapter sequences in my mind and even the opening. I do wonder why I’m doing that, but I have read of some writers who rewrite their novels several times before getting it right. The problem for me is that I know if I continue down that road, I’ll never finish the damn book. I have also been dabbling — in thought, not in deed — about my proposed follow-up to Hunted, my pulp fiction thriller. I don’t know why I’m doing this; it will only end in tears.

My book sales are still flat-lining (almost). I tried one promotion of The Boy from Berlin with Fliploud which resulted in no sales, and I have just come to the end of a one week promotion, same book, with Author Shout. No sales there either. Hopefully I’ll get back on to AMS and BB ads once I’ve settled into a manageable routine with Pat. Wish me luck.