Staying the course

The week got off to a good start with Pat’s second chemo session and no real dramas. We are both surprised and happy with the way she is coping, and this week Pat seems to have got stronger. She made a decision about her hair, and asked me to cut it off before it all fell out. We were due to go to the wig shop anyway, but didn’t cut her hair until after Pat had chosen her wig. I can’t get used to seeing her with a full head of hair, but now I also have to get used to seeing her with no hair! I felt awful taking the clippers to her head: like Sweeney Todd, the demon barber. But it’s another hurdle crossed and that’s a plus point.

On the book front, I have now received the final jacket for my book, The Boy from Berlin. I’m well pleased with it. Haven’t had the bill yet but it will hurt. For some reason, maybe because of my age, I can’t understand why a lot of indie authors spend hundreds of dollars on their books without knowing what kind of success they are likely to have. I’ve spent money on three jackets this year (four when I get Stuart’s bill), and I’m well out of pocket. So, what’s the answer? Spend money on advertising of course, but even then that’s no guarantee. When Jennie Nash critiqued the prologue of my political thriller, she mentioned the fact that I only had 23 reviews; it meant I had no traction. Since spending the best part of £300 (damn VAT) on Facebook, I’ve sold 100 copies of The Boy from Berlin, and still only have 23 reviews. As the Americans would say: “Go figure”. A couple of weeks ago I asked my sister-in-law if she would read the draft copy of my latest, yet to be published, crime novel, No Time to Die. She reads all the time, particularly when she’s travelling up to London as part of her work with IBM. She said some lovely things about the story and promised me it wasn’t because she was related; but she did wonder why writers with my ability (her words) didn’t get the wide readership their books deserved. I had to tell her that many indie authors will spend up to $100 a day on advertising; it’s the only way, so that kind of explains why my work disappears into the literary wilderness. I plan to set up another campaign on Facebook once I have the new jacket, but I will marshal this one very carefully.

I mentioned last week about the reaction to the book jacket I designed for my latest WIP and the reaction from the SPF group, but one response was from a USA Today best selling author, Ditter Kellen, who offered to design a jacket for nothing. Looking on Ditter’s website, I could see she was a prolific writer and had a great deal of success, but nowhere did it say she was a designer. Anyway, she offered to do a freebie so I agreed. She knocked out a very good jacket which demonstrated her skill, but it was a world away from how I visualised mine. I thanked her and said I couldn’t use it. I have also had some advice from members of the CHINDI group, all helpful of course, but in the end I will be biting the bullet and completing the design myself. The book will be available on-line before the end of the month, but I’m not sure yet how I’ll promote it. I have 1400 ‘contacts’ (MailChimp’s new euphemism for subscribers and unsubs), so I’ll let them know it’s coming and will probably start the ball rolling with a price of £0.99.

Next on the agenda is to catch up with work around the garden and in the house during the summer and try — TRY — not to think about my next book, but I do have to figure out how to get Martin Quil into Russia and out again……. Ho hum. Wish me luck!

Schisms and criticisms

Well, the week got off to a good start; we made it to church, which meant Pat was feeling strong enough to get out and mix with friends. We couldn’t hang around too long at the end of the service but it was good to be there. We both gain a lot from the Praise and worship, and the general feelgood factor of just being among fellow believers, and that helps Pat enormously. On the flip side, Pat’s weaning dose of steroids finally came to an end, and I could see the resultant effect of that. We ended up in A&E yesterday because of problem Pat had that couldn’t be sorted by a visit to the GP. We were there for about four hours and after the usual tests, Pat was given a medication which helped. We’ll be seeing the haematologist on Monday because Pat will have her second dose of chemo that day. No doubt we’ll discuss the visit to A&E.

On the book front, I’m working with Stuart Bache on my book jacket. I’ve been reading his self-help book on jacket design and have also watched one of his instructional videos. Although I will be paying Stuart for The Boy from Berlin jacket, my latest book will have one of my own creation. And thereby hangs a tale (or a dilemma). I put my design up for my WIP title No Time to Die on the Chindi FB page and also the SPF FB page (Mark Dawson’s group). My, my, what a contrast! I received some very encouraging comments from the Chindi authors, but the complete opposite from the SPF group. I had about 40 responses from them, and only about four were complimentary; the rest were a mixture of…. Well, I don’t know how to phrase it. I did get the feeling that there was a kind of snobbishness in their collective responses. It was as though they were saying ‘oh, you can’t possibly do that; get a proper designer!’ Photoshop? Really? You can tell you don’t know how to use it. At least beg, borrow or steal the money for a decent jacket. Wrong fonts, wrong colours. I could go on. I did say, at the beginning of my post that I was working with Stuart Bache on a jacket, but couldn’t afford to pay for two professionally designed jackets. Two people offered to do the jacket for me: one very cheap ($175), one for free. So, a big lesson learned there. I will be working on my own jacket until I’m happy with it, but I’ll sneak it out under their noses. Have a look, see what you think, but I will be working on it, rest assured.

A curious email popped into my inbox; it came by way of the contact page on my website. It was from a video company called wiki.ezvid. The email was from Caroline Eliasson, to tell me that my thriller, Roselli’s Gold, had made it on to their Wiki list of grown up action thrillers. No money was asked for and the book is there, right enough. The link they provided was this: https://wiki.ezvid.com/m/11-grown-up-thrillers-full-of-action-and-adventure-gUpRMIJjb5ZXt Why not check it out. There’s quite a lot to see there, plus details of the company and staff. Incidentally, when you click the video, you’ll see my book being trailered in video. Great stuff! They offer to make videos of your product of course, and that is what the business is all about.

My book sales are flat-lining again. The promotion for The Boy from Berlin, run over five weeks, resulted in a sale of 110 ebooks, plus about 20 of my other titles, which was good for me. I decided to try a short FB campaign for my African adventure, Hell’s Gate. So far I’ve sold one copy. The odd thing here is that I’ve had 30 people ‘like’ the link for the advert, so why haven’t they bought it? Unless Amazon has a fault in it’s system. I’d like to think so, but it’s unlikely. The campaign will finish in a few days, so I’ll let it run. The next one will be for The Boy from Berlin, once Stuart Bache has completed the artwork.

Next thing for me and Pat is her chemo session on Monday. All we can hope is that the treatment works and it won’t be long before we can see some positive improvement. Oh, and we’re off to the wig shop on Thursday. I think I could do with one. Wish us luck!

Expecting the unexpected

Things never turn out the way we might have expected, and this week had a few of those in store for us. Pat was due at the hospital on Monday morning for a blood test followed by an appointment three hours later with the haematologist. She had a problem over the weekend which needed dealing with urgently, so we walked into the Macmillan centre after her blood test, and within ten minutes we were sitting with the haematologist who decided to bring Pat’s afternoon appointment forward. We do know that the specialists involved in Pat’s saga over the last eight months, including her current doctor, have been aware of the need to deal with Pat as urgently as they can. In this case the doctor lived up to that by dealing with her quickly and, for us, unexpectedly. Pat is now improving gradually with the help of a load more pills. She’s handling her chemo well, which is something else we didn’t expect.

The Facebook ads for my thriller, The Boy from Berlin, came to a halt five days ago. The ads ran for four weeks: four in UK and three in USA. I sold 110 copies which included a couple of paperbacks. I also sold some of my other titles, most of which happened after the Berlin thriller started selling. I didn’t expect to do that well, although for some authors that kind of return would be abysmal, but with me, I tend to take a philosophical look at the whole thing and remain thankful that, to a certain extent, the ads worked. It was unexpected and encouraging. One downside is I am now getting emails from people offering to promote the book (at a price). I am still waiting for Stuart Bache to get back to me with the redesigned jacket; something he promised for ‘later in July’. Meanwhile I am running a short ad for my African novel, Hell’s Gate. I’ve had that running for three days and have sold two copies. I’m advertising in UK, Ireland and Kenya.

I have finished the final edit for my WIP (is it ever final?) and have been toying with book jacket designs. I can’t afford to pay anyone to do this for me because I’ve set aside money for Stuart Bache’s jacket this month. I have a copy of Stuart’s book on jacket design, which is very good, and I have found some useful information about colours and typeface etc. Meanwhile, I’m happy with the book at the moment. I asked my sister-in-law, Carol, to read it for me this afternoon. I asked her simply to read it and let me know if there are any inconsistencies etc. She reads a great deal so is no stranger to my kind of fiction. I’ve called the book No Time to Die and would describe it as a crime/mystery novel. The word count is about 62,000 words: well short of my usual book length, but I’ve messed about with this one for so long, I decided it was time to finish it and get it on-line ASAP. This was a book that, a few months ago, I never expected to finish. But I have and now I can unwind a little. Might even start thinking about my next book!

Over the last few weeks, I have tended to buy little things for Pat: things she’s mentioned that she might need or want. I bought her a drink flosser; one of those spinners that you can use for frothing your coffee up. It comes in handy when I make her a milk drink. But the other day she thought she might have to use drinking straws if her chemo affected her mouth too badly, so I bought some. However, I never expected her to put them in jar. She thought they looked that pretty, they were better on display. Cheaper than flowers too! Whatever next? Wish me luck!