You never know what's coming

I would like to introduce our Chindi “Author of the Week”: Helen Christmas is a West Sussex author of romantic thriller suspense series, Same Face Different Place; a saga set in England across 4 decades. Writing is something Helen is passionate about. She always dreamed of being an author and in 2012, finally took the first step in publishing her debut novel ‘Beginnings,’ the first book in the series. ‘Beginnings’, described by fans as a ‘real page turner’, is set in the dark, criminal underworld of 1970s London. Part thriller and part romance, it is a story of two young people, unwittingly caught up in a conspiracy to end the life of a British MP, forced into hiding and desperate to escape from deadly enemies. There are four books in the series, and you can learn more on Helen’s website at http://www.samefacedifferentplace.com

I’ve made reasonable progress this week on my projects — until now! This morning, when I switched my computer on, I had to wait for the dreaded Windows update to finish before I could get on. I left the blue screen ticking over and went across to our local shop for a paper, and was back within fifteen minutes. The update had reached 7%. I knew then there was going to be trouble. Eventually, at 27%, and my wife ready to go out shopping, I reluctantly left the machine on. It had been updating now for 45 minutes. When we got back from the shops, there were messages on the screen about retaining all kinds of personal information etc., and eventually I was able to get on with the reason I have a computer. No such luck; the update had wiped out all my saved passwords for different sites, rendered the ‘favourites’ icons as blank, and returned my Google mail site to Spanish, which was where we lived for seventeen years. But the biggest disaster was that it wiped out the link to the editorial section of my website where I can add blog posts, etc., etc. (I get the error 404 message all the time). It also wiped out my website email link. The result is that I had to contact Wix support to re-establish my html account (which I pay for incidentally). I’m now waiting for their response. The one saving grace is that I can access my html site on my laptop. I tried copying the web address once I was in the editorial section of my site, e-mailed it to myself and tried opening it on my main PC, but it didn’t work. I’m beginning to think the update had left a fault in my machine now which will have to be sorted by the professionals.

I made progress with my WIP, and have reached 15000 words and still moving forward. But another project I’m on is the re-design of the book jacket for my nuclear thriller, The Devil’s Trinity. I finished that and am now editing the book. Hopefully I’ll have that finished before May 31st, which is when Ingram Spark’s free update offer for old files runs out. (I don’t like that word ‘Update’ anymore).

My BookBub ads are not performing too well. My CTR is around 0.95%, which is rather low. I have tinkered with the ad, but it takes time to reflect on any changes, and to figure out where I need to make alterations. My book sales are slowing down but not stalling. However, I will have to make a decision later as to whether I stick with BB and go back to Facebook. I think BB is cheaper and probably more effective, but only if I get it right. Wish me luck

Talking Books

This week’s featured author for my blog is Chindi’s own, Christopher Joyce. Chris lives in Chichester and is the author of six children’s books titled The Creatures of Chichester. The latest is The one about the Golden Lake, which he has also launched as an audio book. All Chris’s printed books are dyslexic friendly with large, sans-serif fonts. The lead character in The One About The Golden Lake is dyslexic himself and solves the mystery because he sees the world in a different way. The audio books are also a different way to ‘read’ stories. Although the books might appear as a series, they are actually stand-alone and can be read in any order. You can learn more about Chris and his books at http://www.chindi-authors.co.uk/what-shall-we-listen-to-today-mummy/.

I managed to finish the work on my website that I believe improved it, although I can’t say it has increased my book sales. Is that a given though? Some people believe it’s essential to have an attractive website, but often I look on some websites and see so much information on them, it’s a complete turn-off. You can see mine at www.michaelparkerbooks.com if you’re curious.

I have had to get to grips with my BookBub ads. They are not producing the click-through-rate (CTR) I was enjoying a couple of months ago. I’ve been tweaking the ad (it’s for my nuclear thriller, The Devil’s Trinity), and have reduced the price of the book. Today I changed the ad logo. If all else fails, I’ll drop the price to £0.99 (seems to work).

I have imposed a kind of discipline on myself with regard to my WIP. Each day I must write something, whether it is worth it or not. And today, Pat showed me an article in today’s Daily Mail about the playwright, Tom Stoppard who is suffering from writer’s block. He says there is nothing there; just an emptiness. Well, at least I’m in good company because that’s close to how I feel when I sit staring at my WIP wondering what I’m going to write and where I want to go with it.

Another problem I’m dealing with is that I don’t have any copies of my paperback, The Devil’s Trinity. I ordered one from Ingram Spark and disliked it immediately. Mea Culpa of course, so I have set about redesigning the jacket. It means digging deep to make use of Photoshop again. I’ve spent a few hours on it so far, messing around with photos, cutting and pasting, deleting etc. No doubt I’ll get there in the end, but hopefully with something I can be pleased with.

The Chichester Festival organisers launched their Festival programme this week. It’s on line and yours truly is there. I’m in the same section as best-selling author Kate Mosse (I wonder if she’s heard of me?), but there are also other local indie authors, poets and artists there too. I just hope I can pull it off. Wish me luck!

Busywigs

A full week for me, one way or another. I have more or less finished messing around with my website, and now have something which I feel is more presentable and “clickable” (if that’s the right word). Monday evening I went to a talk in Chichester on “The Harrier and the Cold War” given by Group Captain Jock Heron — a must for me because of our family association with the aeroplane. Wednesday it was the cinema and “The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society”. An absolute gem of a film I thought, and although I’ve read the book, I’ve downloaded the Kindle copy and have started reading it. Thursday evening was our church AGM: never an exciting time, but needs to be done. During the week I submitted one of my titles to two different outfits: Mark Dawson’s ‘Unputdownable’ imprint, and Joffe Books (rhymes with toffee). And today I went along to see my Grand-daughter, Gemma dressed up as a Unicorn to entertain the children in the ‘Kids in the Park’ event. Oh, and I began a complete rewrite of my WIP.

Yes, my website. What I needed to achieve was something easier on the eye with an instant view of my books. On each one there is a link to sample chapters, and from there, if the reader is interested, he or she can access the book on all the on-line sites where it’s available. Took a lot of editing and teeth gnashing, but I got there in the end.

The Harrier talk was a must because I was stationed at RAF Wildenrath in Germany in the early seventies where two Harrier squadrons were based. Our boys were all young then, but eventually Terry, our No.2 son went on to become a Harrier pilot, and two of our boys, John and Stephen, worked as Harrier technicians on the same squadrons for several years.

The ‘Guernsey’ film was a must for me too. It’s the kind of book I would love to have written. Quite emotional, well acted and a real treat, particularly for authors. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth thinking about.

Yes, AGMs are usually dull affairs, although some can be boisterous, I know, but this was a church do where we are all very civilised (on the surface). Perhaps I should write a book about it.

The Kids in the Park was held in Chichester. My grand-daughter made me wear a silly unicorn wig and took a photograph of me. It’s on Facebook already.

The reason I’ve submitted one of my titles to two different outfits is simply because students of Mark Dawson (and I am one), were invited to try their luck with his imprint. Costs will be met for those books selected, and there will only be about three or four chosen. With Joffe Books, the invitation came during an SPF podcast in which Jasper Joffe explained his vision and what he can do for Indie authors (if your book is chosen). Whoever is lucky enough to be picked up by either of these two, they will be in good hands and can expect a significant increase in sales.

Now, my WIP. Yes, I have begun again. This will be the second time I’ve done this since the beginning of the year. It currently stands at 90,000 words, but I know I was going nowhere with it, and I had to be honest with myself and admit it needs a major rethink. So, it’s back to the drawing board and, fingers crossed, I will get it finished. Wish me luck!