The Skill of the Professionals

I have to say that my blog has been delayed because the World Cup got in the way. So while the Americans are celebrating Independence Day, we English are celebrating our first victory in a penalty shoot-out. For those Americans who don’t understand football, let me say that the referee in our game against the Colombians was American (no, I’m not suggesting anything!). The picture of Jordan Pickford saving a penalty in the shoot-out is significant to us because that was the moment we knew we almost had it in the bag: just one more of our lads to take a shot at the Columbian keeper and we would win. Well done, Eric Dier for being “cool” and scoring the winning penalty.

So what’s all that got to do with writing and selling books? Well, I’m convinced that photograph is allegorical: Pickford is not really a footballer; he’s a stopper working for Amazon and other on-line book sellers. He’s there to stop all my efforts at promotion and marketing — not a particularly difficult task, but he comes into his own when he’s up against the professionals I employ to sell my books (BookAds). And he’s been doing a classy job up till now. Ten days into the AMS ads campaign and I’ve sold three copies of my book that BookAds are promoting. It’s so glum that I’ve picked up advertising on BookBub ads again, just to see if I can outstrip BookAds. Hopefully BookBub will have a weak ‘stopper’ and I’ll see some results.

This week is important for members of our Chindi group (www.chindi-authors.co.uk). It’s the Chichester Festival time, and we are holding six events in Chichester. These will be at Henning’s Wine shop (in the room above) for five evenings, culminating in a stall at Graylingwell Park, and also a ghost tour round the city that evening. I’ll be doing a talk on the ups and downs of an Indie thriller writer on Friday evening. If you’re in the locality, why not pop in? It’s a ticket event, but they can be purchased on the night.

Last week we had a visit from our Grandson, Sam who lives in America. His family home is in Australia, but he came over to UK from the States with his girlfriend, Taryn. He’s lived in the US for a couple of years now, and its funny hearing a mixture of American, Australian and English colloquialisms. We wanted to take them out for a meal; Taryn said she wanted Fish and Chips, seeing as it was her first visit here and she’d heard so much about the traditional English take-away. We ended up at the end of the pier in Bognor, sitting by the beach eating our Fish and Chips. Really enjoyed it and I’m sure Taryn did too.

I have often said that I feel as though I’m in a literary straitjacket, trying to write series thrillers. Having decided to put my WiP on the back-burner for now, I’m fast coming to the conclusion that the reason I have struggled with this book is simply that: I shouldn’t be writing another Marcus Blake thriller; I should be looking for inspiration from another source, and there’s plenty of that around. So there’s the dilemma: do I pick it up later in the year and produce something mundane, or do I try for that inspired moment as I have done with all my other books? Wish me luck!

Coraggio amico mio (Courage, my friend)

Took a break from it all and went to Hever Castle last Wednesday. It was the home of the unfortunate Ann Boleyn, second wife of Henry V111. It was a lovely day; the house (castle) was amazing, and the gardens exceptional. It was well worth the visit and made me feel like writing historical novels rather than the stuff I write now. I slept like a log that night — must be my age. Pat said she slept well too. (Must be her age as well).

Decision time. How often do we have one of those? Mine crept up on me when I realised I needed professional help in tackling my abysmal marketing efforts. I know I’m not alone in that; I see several posts on my FB author forums by authors wondering why they can’t sell books despite spending a lot of money on advertising, and I’m no exception. I thought I had improved my efforts with BookBub ads, but after changing the ad at the beginning of the month, my sales on Amazon came to a halt and those on D2D nosedived. I began tweaking the ad, but without any change in results. I rewrote the short, sixteen word blurb and dropped the price twice. Still nothing. So I figured I needed help. It all began with Dave Chesson and his KDP Rocket course.

The Rocket course is about finding the keywords for the Amazon ads. I mentioned it in last week’s blog. But at the end of the course were several links to other places, no doubt Dave Chesson has affiliate links to these. This one — the one that intrigued me — was by a group called Book ads. They take on your promotion for a fee (naturally), and the AMS campaigns are run by a guy called Brian Berni. There are others involved in the group too, but Brian becomes an editor added to your AMS dashboard. He then runs the ads. Brian lives in Italy and worked in the Vatican archives for seven years (I wonder if he ever saw the light of day?). He’s American (I think). Well, he sounds American. But the rub, and this was the point at which I hesitated for a long while, was that I was required to agree to run ten ads consecutively. I pay a monthly fee, which I can cancel at any time, and must be prepared to spend $10 a day. It doesn’t take much maths to see that it could result in a spend of $300 or more a month if there are no book sales. Hence the hesitation. I counted it all on my fingers and toes, figured out how I could keep it secret from Pat (I told her in the end anyway), bit the bullet and signed up. I’ll let you know next week how the ads are progressing, if at all. The most I could expect to spend on AMS by the way is about $6 or $7 a day.

I was back in the book design business too. I received a proof copy of my re-edited book, The Devil’s Trinity, and could see I needed to do a minor tweak to the jacket. The book came yesterday and still needed attention, so I uploaded another, revised jacket (I’m talking about very minor changes here) and hope to see it in a couple of days.

July is almost upon us and I have the Littlehampton Festival Book talk and the Chichester Festival Book talk to look forward to. There’s also a small festival here on our estate where I’ll be manning a table hoping to sell my books for a charitable cause. Mind you, if I don’t have any success with Book Ads and AMS advertising, I think the charity I’ll be thinking of will be closer to home. Wish me luck!

Trying not to get diverted.

This week began with a Chindi Zoom meeting. Nine of us tuned in and managed to talk about a great deal. We were able to chat to John Hall who was beginning his ‘Author of the Week’ slot during which time we feature him and his book Under the Yew Tree. You can read about John and his novel at http://www.chindi-authors.co.uk/john-hall/. When we have these Zoom meetings, they can be quite amusing: rather like a bunch of amateurs producing a TV show. But we enjoy having them and it helps to bring faces together and to catch up in the flesh so to speak.

I said the week began with a meeting, but in fact it began with a visit from our No.3 great grandson, Orin. We love having him here, even though we have to make our home “baby friendly”. All the TV remotes have to be put up high, the telephone as well. He likes pushing buttons and even sees the small speakers on the TV sound bar as a source of button pushing joy. It was a lovely day, so we were able to have some time with him in the garden giving him a chance to play splash in the blow-up pool. It was a sunny day, so he was suitably covered in sun cream.

Of course, none of this was helping me with my dedication to learning more about promotion and marketing; not that I was too unhappy about that. But I have been busy studying Dave Chesson’s course on AMS keywords etc. I have the benefit of Mark Dawson’s excellent course on the subject, but I find Chesson’s course a little more forensic, and therefore a little more complicated. It’s strange how other experts come across with their advice. Dave Chesson recommended an ebook on AMS advertising by Brian D. Meeks. I’m just over half-way through the book and wonder why I’m even trying; it’s designed to frighten you off AMS altogether, I’m sure of it. Yes, all the information is there, but as a “student”, it’s clear to me that the teacher thinks the subject is a doddle. Nevertheless I shall pick the bones out of the advice, spend my money and watch my sales rocket. Really? Oh, where am I? Oh yes, back to reality — my learning curve. My sales have bottomed on Amazon, which means I need to persevere and hope the information sinks in.

During the week I received an email via my website from a reader who enjoyed my book, Past Imperfect. He wanted a free copy of my giveaway title, The Devil’s Trinity, but failed to realise it was an ebook and not a paperback. I checked the wording on my website and could see how someone could make the mistake in not realising it was only an ebook, and it was for my subscription list. Anyway, I have decided to send him a copy. I’ve changed the wording now on my front page. Incidentally, this is what he said about the book: I think Past Imperfect was one of the best, if not, the best of the books I have ever read. I like the way you tied the characters from the past to the current, very clever.

My other diversion this week (and the next four) is, of course, the World Cup. What else can I say other than “Come on England!” Wish me luck!