Entering uncharted territory

This week saw the launch of my pulp fiction thriller, HUNTED. This was something I didn’t expect just two months ago, and the thought of writing a thriller in five weeks was anathema to me, but there you go; never say never. I’m not going to claim it’s brilliant, but I can say it’s a bit of a page turner. I sent an email to my subscribers and have sold 41 copies so far. I actually shifted 23 within a couple of hours. That might have something to do with the low launch price of £0.99. I’ll keep it there for a week or so and then raise the price. So, if you want to grab the low priced copy while you can, this is where you’ll find it: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07P9MQYCK. It’s also available on most of the other on-line book sellers here: https://books2read.com/u/meyjXl.

My book talk at the Ladies Friendship Club went well. I sold about twelve books, which was very good for me. I expected to maybe shift a couple, but the ladies must have liked me. One even complimented me on the creases in my shirt sleeves. (Yes, she bought a book too!). One of my Chindi author colleagues asked what I talked about. I told her it was about me essentially; I just go on and on, reminiscing about the early days of traditional publishing and how I ‘metamorphed’ into an indie publisher. I have nothing lined up now, and probably wouldn’t commit myself because of being here for Pat. The talk last week was just a couple of minutes up the road and a friend came in to sit with her. But I do have Book Lab 5 to look forward to.

I mentioned the Book Lab last week. I’m due to get the results from the three professionals on the 18th. March, followed by an interview with James Blatch. I watched the Book Lab 4 video again, and then checked out No. 3. It’s scary stuff, and I expect to be dissected without mercy. I also know I’ll be asked what or how I intend to use the results of this free assessment of my book. I’m sure I’ll be expected to say I will take everything on board and invest in a new jacket, a new blurb and spend a bit on promotion. I’d be a mug not to I suppose, but like all advertising etc., there are no guarantees. The video interview won’t be released until some time in April, so I won’t be able to give the link for a while.

On the subject of advertising: I created a BookBub ad for HUNTED, using the excellent advice in David Gaughran’s latest book. I had a budget of $50 spread over two weeks with the instruction to get through the money as quick as possible. I allocated $0.14 a click — just above the suggested price, paying CPM (as advised), and saw the money disappear in two days! And no sales! This is scratch the head time: what do I do now? I’ll probably resort to my own BB ads plan in future and keep the budget down; after all, I have to save some money for the outcome of Book Lab 5.

On the domestic front, Pat and I are still in the middle of waiting for her results. It’s a stressful time, particularly for Pat. I’m keeping fit by doing the jobs that Pat would normally do and, thankfully, I’m able to keep abreast of my on-line stuff. Hopefully I’ll be able to devote some time to the WIP I shoved aside to write my thriller. Maybe, eh? Wish me luck.

No pressure then?

Another busy week for yours truly. I travelled up to London each day and brought Pat home Friday. We now have to wait until about March 11th. for the results. There was precious little time to do much else except make sure the dog had her walk and keep on top of the small jobs around the house, but I did manage to get on with my Pulp Fiction thriller. I now have a book jacket for it. I won’t say it’s brilliant, but that’s something I can deal with later if it’s really necessary. I also received a fairly comprehensive report from one of my beta readers with a beautifully laid out column of typos and an adjacent column with suggested changes. It cost me nothing! I had already done an edit myself, so I can hold my hand up and say I had already caught about 30% of the errors. I have now sorted them all out and can take the next step: publish. That will probably be some time during the week. I’ll be setting the price low and spending some money on advertising. But (there’s always a but), I have just bought David Gaughran’s book on BookBub ads, and I really need to go through it before putting any ads on BB. No doubt I’ll do that anyway and then tweak the ads later.

Regular readers of my blog will remember me talking about being selected for Mark Dawson’s Book Lab; it’s something I’m eligible for because I’m a gold Patreon member. I volunteered for selection, never for one minute expecting to be picked. I’m No.5 and will be interviewed later this month. Meanwhile, I watched the Book Lab 4 video last night on You Tube. It was an author called Niki Danforth, and the video ran for about two hours. The three professionals who looked at Niki’s latest release, using the ‘Look inside’ feature on Amazon, were Jennie Nash, Bryan Cohen and Stuart Bache. To hire these professionals would cost the earth: I think Jennie charges $3000 a month to work with an author through the writing process. Stuart Bache charges $600+ for a book jacket, and I’ve no idea what Bryan Cohen charges, but it will be up there with the rest. They have all worked with top authors like John Grisham, David Baldacci etc., so they know what they are about. Having seen Niki Danforth’s work taken apart, dissected, critiqued and other little peccadilloes thrown in, I’m now wondering what on earth they will say about mine. It’s The Boy from Berlin they’ll be looking at, and already I’m a nervous wreck. I will have to find a sanctuary just to hide my shame: a remote retreat somewhere. When Niki was interviewed, I could see her reaction was, well, controlled is the best word I can come up with. The upside to all this though, is that if I take on board the suggested changes to my book jacket, the blurb and advertising strap-lines, it should — should — give me an increase in book sales. I know I would be a mug not to take advantage of this. However, it could be different, couldn’t it? After all, they may say I’m brilliant and nothing needs changing, right? No, I didn’t think so. The results will be posted to me on March 18th (my birthday), and the video interview will be released in April. Should be fun.

My book talk at the Ladies Friendship Club is on Wednesday, which is something I’m looking forward to; nowhere near as frightening as the Book Lab. It was touch and go for a while because I wasn’t sure I could make the date with Pat being the way she is at the moment. Thankfully she’s home and will be coming to the event with me. It’s only a two minute drive up to the village hall from here. The talk is scheduled to last 45 minutes by which time I will probably have managed to cover most of what I want to say. However, I do have a habit of going on a bit, so may have to wind things in a little. Hopefully the women will all love me and will want to but my books. Wish me luck!

It's all a bit of a puzzle

I’m almost ready to publish my pulp fiction thriller which I have titled HUNTED. I changed the title several times in my mind and each time got more and more doubtful about whether I’d ever come up with something suitable. I watched an eight minute video on Reedsy about choosing a title, but I’m afraid the lady was so far removed from my type of fiction, I knew I wasn’t going to get much out of her. So back to the drawing board and up came the title. I have paid for a cheap jacket from Fiverr.com. The sample jackets from the designer called Histart looked pretty good, so I’ve gone for the cheap, £25 option. That will give me the eBook, print and 3D versions. The jacket should be available once I’ve provided a photo and a bio. Hopefully I can accept what Histart has come up with. We’ll see.

I’m not making much headway with my book sales, so I’ve tweaked my AMS ad and my BookBub ad., which is for Past Imperfect, but it doesn’t seem to be working because my sales so far are for my other titles. I’ll wait another week and if the situation doesn’t improve I’ll bin the ad and spend money on my thrillers.

I became involved in a Facebook post about subscriber engagement the other day. I said my subs seemed only to be interested in anything free, because there is no real engagement with them. I was told it was probably because I was trying to sell them something. I pointed out that I hadn’t offered them the opportunity to buy one of my books for over a year, but had been giving them an occasional freebie. It comes down to how we interpret the advice we’re given about connecting with our subscribers. Nick Stephenson believes you shouldn’t be too ‘salesy’. But should offer snippets, talk about your characters, what drives you as a writer etc. I’ve also been advised not to contact subscribers too often because they’ll get fed up. So, what to do? I have six people reading HUNTED at the moment, which was the response I had when I asked for volunteer readers. I will send an email to my 1200 subs when the book is available on Amazon, but I won’t give it away. I’ll probably offer it at £0.99 for a week before banging the price up: see what happens.

On the domestic front, I’m taking Pat to St. George’s hospital in London tomorrow where she’ll be admitted for a procedure to determine the type of cancer she has. Last Monday, we spoke to the Cardiothoracic surgeon who will be doing the op. and he said Pat defies all medical logic; meaning they should have known by now what cancer it is. We can only hope and pray that this time the biopsy will be a success. She’ll be under a general anaesthetic for the op, but should be out by Thursday, maybe Friday.

I lived a couple of miles away from that hospital down the Garratt Lane when I was a kid. I told the surgeon I was in the hospital about 72 years ago. I might take a drive down the lane when I bring Pat home. The estate where I was brought up is the same estate where the current Mayor of London lived. Naturally this was years after my domicile there, and I’ve no doubt the ethnicity now is totally different.

It’s a bit of a puzzle; writing a thriller, deciding on a title and diagnosing Pat’s cancer, but I’m sure we’ll get there in the end. Once I’ve got this week out of the way (I’ll be travelling up to Tooting each day), and have Pat back home and settled, I might be able to pick up my current WiP and make headway with that. Wish me luck!