Dedication

Dedication is something most of us are familiar with, particularly when it comes to writing books. I often read of authors in the book groups of which I’m a member on Facebook that demonstrate a high degree of dedication in achieving significant sales of their work each month. Last week I watched Adam Croft being interviewed. He maxed out his credit cards, his wife’s and even asked members of his family to help him spend more. He became a best-selling indie author (one million books sold) on Amazon; so for him it worked. I don’t think I have that kind of dedication though.

Today I witnessed another kind of dedication at the Guagemaster exhibition of model railways over at Ford in West Sussex. The layouts were spectacular, intricate and painstakingly assembled, lovingly detailed and worth more than you could probably put a price on. I spoke to one chap who had a French railway layout, correct in every detail. He told me that you needed to get everything right, and it can only be done by research and looking for the proper rolling stock, vehicles, figurines and model buildings. That struck a chord with me because of the parallel nature of our hobbies: creating something almost real through dedication, research and application. The largest display at the exhibition had twenty trains running at the same time. I tried counting them but they kept disappearing through tunnels and stopping at stations as other trains swept by. I had to ask in the end.

But there is another kind of dedication, one I came across years ago that probably dwarfs everything I’ve spoken about here. When I was a young man in the Royal Air Force, I was at a training camp in a post-graduate billet. There were eight of us in a twenty-man billet. In the single bunk where the NCO i/c usually slept was a Malaysian lad. He was a Junior Technician and not part of our group. We used to see him from time to time going through to the ablutions and we’d nod, naturally. But one day I got a chance to talk to him. I asked him where he was from. He told me Kuala Lumpa. I thought he would have lived in England so I asked if he joined the RAF over there in Malaya. He said no, that he had to come to England to do that. I thought about my time in the Merchant navy when the ship I was on did the Far East trips taking Empire Builders (Diplomatic Corps) out, and bringing immigrants back. I wondered if he had been on one of those trips. He said no. I asked him if he flew over. He said, “No — I cycled”. Cycled! It took him three months. He wanted to join the RAF and that was the only way he could afford to get here. I suppose at that time I might have felt a little superior to him because of all the immigrants I’d seen in my time on those runs and my young age: probably thought because I was British I had some kind of right to feel a little elevated. But this lad’s dedication had a telling affect on me; it left me almost gasping in shock and complete admiration. It taught me a great deal about strength of mind and determination.

So when I think about my own efforts at writing, promotion, marketing and aiming high, I wonder if I really do possess what it takes to get to the top. Has that young Malaysian youth’s dedication taught me anything? I suppose I can take comfort in the fact that I have written eleven full length novels, been traditionally published and am still at it. I hope so. Wish me luck!

Life in the Slow Lane.

The Arundel Festival sales are going well; we’re exceeding the figures we achieved last year. I should qualify that statement really: they, our magnificent Chindi stalwarts manning the stall, are exceeding expectations. But today, unfortunately, the opportunity to raise more money for the charity has been rained off. Our Chindi girl, Carol, tried gamely to set the stall up but the continuing downpour meant it was in vain. Ah well, tomorrow is another day. Sunshine is forecast and it’s a Bank Holiday. Fingers crossed then.

My AMS ads are proving to be a continuing mystery, despite seeing slow, steady sales of Hell’s Gate, I have yet to see anything significant for Roselli’s Gold. I also have a weekly spend on tweets: only about one pound a week, but it means five of my books are tweeted and retweeted by Author Sidekick. Trouble with that is that there is no way of knowing if those tweets result in any sales. Interestingly though, I am getting a lot of searches on LinkedIn, and a lot of views on my Facebook page. I guess it means that people are becoming more aware of my name as an indie writer, and are looking at me via social media. I just wish they were buying my books though!

I’m currently reading Sam Bourne’s thriller, To Kill the President. It’s too early to say if I’m enjoying the book (I’ve read Sam Bourne before), but I did wonder if he is writing a scenario that he would like enacted in the Whitehouse and have Donald Trump done away with.

I’m also bobbing between Brian Meeks’ book on AMS ads, Tammy Labrecque in email marketing and Adam Croft on the indie author mindset. He’s the featured writer on the SPF podcast this week, so I’ll be looking at that later.

I have made some inroads into my WIP. Slow progress I must admit, but I have had to juggle several things this week: not least an on-line meeting with the new, proposed Chindi Directors. Yes, me and the other directors are jumping ship. Well, not quite that drastic, but stepping aside to let new faces in and give them the opportunity to spread our Chindi wings further.

During the week we hosted an evening meal for a Romanian family. They are over here for the wedding of one of our church members. Pastor Nelu, his wife Florica and their daughter, Tabitha who came along to translate for them. Nelu’s English is not too good, but Tabitha is fluent. Lovely family. Nelu is a beekeeper and brought us over three jars of different honey. We also had our No.3 Great Grandson over for lunch on Friday. Well, his mum and grandad came too of course. Orin (the toddler), spent most of the time running around and playing. It was lovely to see him; he’s always smiling. Just another reason why I wasn’t in my room sweating over my WIP.

Looking ahead, I have some admin work to do for Chindi as well as preparing for our trip to Australia in three weeks’ time. We needed a Doctor’s certificate in order to get a Visa for OZ because of our ages. That was a surprise, but we have the visas now. Oh, and something else happened to make me think: I received a royalty statement from D2D for my Barnes & Noble royalties for $124 last August (2017 — a year ago)! Not bad eh? But I think that must have been an error; I’ve had royalties from B&N each month. Not much, but something. Perhaps I’ll get some more backdated stuff, eh? I hope. Wish me luck!.

Change of perspective

Another big week for the Chindi group as the Arundel Festival kicks off to ten days of fun, art, mayhem and lots of tourists. Our members have set up their stall outside the Cancer UK Research charity shop with over 200 titles available, all signed, the proceeds of which will go to the cancer charity. We have done this for the last three years and exceeded our targets each time. I won’t be there this year, but the ten days will be covered in shifts by our lovely, talented writers.

My week began with another nail-biting venture into Amazon ads. The four ads I’d put on a few weeks ago did little for me. I cancelled three and left one running. So far my ‘aCos’ has dropped to less that 100%, which (I think) means I’m spending marginally less than my sales are earning. The sales of Hell’s Gate are incrementing gradually, but not with too much speed. So, continuing with Brian Meeks’ advice, I started another seven ads; this time for Roselli’s Gold. Nothing has happened yet because the ads have only just been approved by Amazon, and the advice I’m given is that it’s possible that nothing will happen for several days. So it’s patience and nail-biting time. The biggest problem is writing ad copy. I had to write five different lines of copy for five of the ads (same book, same ad). The cost per click is the same for two ads, then another CpC for two more, and a single, higher rate for the fifth ad. It’s bewildering, but hopefully if I stick to the ‘Guru’s’ plan, I might see some gains.

We had a friend staying with us for a week. She brought her little Chihuahua called Daisy: a dog with attitude; it wanted to fight every dog it saw. I told her she should change its name to Genghis, might be more appropriate. What is it with little dogs? Fortunately our Tuppence had us to look out for her.

Another move I’ve made is to download two eBooks: one written by Adam Croft about getting into the mind of an indie writer and changing your perspective. The other is a book by Tammi Labrecque on email marketing. It isn’t about learning with Mailchimp, Aweber, Mailerlite and all that, but the approach that’s needed to cultivate readers. The point about Tammi’s approach is that you do not try and sell your books. Daft? Sounds like it. But the book was strongly recommended by David Gaughran. I have told him that if I don’t sell a million books by the end of next year, I’ll beat him over the head with the book. He accepted that so long as it’s the eBook I use.

Looking at all that from another point of view, I have to say that because nothing seems to work for long, you have to start considering what it is you’re doing wrong, what you want to achieve and accept that a change of direction could be the answer. So, I am about to give up trying to persuade people with my smooth-tongued rhetoric and stick to cultivating them by way of a completely different approach. The sermon at church today was about Jesus telling Peter that he’ll never catch fish the way he’s casting his nets and will do far better by casting his nets on the other side of the boat. The nets almost broke with the catch. So, lesson learned here? Am I using the wrong approach? Time, then, for me to cast my nets the other side and maybe, just maybe, I’ll catch a ton of readers and convert them to my books. Wish me luck!