New Birth, New Hope

Well, the first thing I want to announce is that my fourth great-grandson, Liri, was born on the 12th February to my grand-daughter, Gemma, and her partner, Max. Liri’s name is an ancient Hebrew name meaning ‘Lyrical’. I will be going up to Horsham next week to introduce myself to him and see if he approves of me. I’m sure he will.

Looking back over the last six weeks, I seem to have a lot to write about, but not all with tales of sparkling success in the world of Michael Parker Books. But my life isn’t about books; there are other highs and lows to talk about. I picked up again on my latest book project (Occupied Paris in 1940/41), which I started in October but set aside during November. I have now written close to 24000 words, and it’s an unbelievable hardship for me. I have five books that I bought to help my research, but as much as I can see where I’m going with this, I’m not so sure where or how I’ll finish. I expect it will take several months before I complete the first draft.

I’ve booked a five day break in June at a writers retreat in Beal, Yorkshire. I’d been trying to figure out what I could do for a holiday this year and, having written off coach tours and cruising, this particular break seems to tick all the boxes for me. I’m actually looking forward to it, despite the long drive.

My grandson, Adam, came to see me with his fiancée, Agata. She’s a lovely girl and is Polish. We got talking about the Polish heroines of the war against Hitler in France, and she has agreed to let me use her name in my book as one of the Polish secret agents in Occupied Paris. I do hope I can do her justice (and the Polish people!)

I bought flowers for our church on January 14th, which was my lovely Pat’s birthday, and I took my neighbours, Rick and Ann, out for lunch on the 19th to celebrate our 64th wedding anniversary.

I came home from church a few Sundays ago to find my dog, Tuppence, had nicked three apples from the fruit bowl. It’s the first time she’s done that. Now the fruit bowl is in the kitchen where she can’t get to it.

I had a dash cam fitted to my car. I do think more about my age and driving on our increasingly poor and busy roads. I had three near misses last year, none of which were my fault, which was why I decided to have the dash cam fitted.

But back to my book world. I began a very expensive campaign with a marketing company last October, featuring my nuclear thriller, The Devil’s Trinity. I can’t explain what they did; it would take too long, but I can say that, despite the cost, I was really pleased how they managed to elevate my book to higher places than I could ever have achieved myself. I lost financially but gained in many other ways. The campaign finished at the end of January, and now my book sales have tapered away to zero. I also ran a campaign featuring A Covert War at a reduced price. Together the result meant I sold about 315 books in ten weeks. That for me is a magnificent result because my annual sales are usually around 150 books. And to give you some idea of how I manage on my own, I have sold one book in the last four days!

I have more or less reached a decision to pull back from campaigning and simply rely on organic growth now. I think the hassle of trying to make it in the world of books is proving too much for me. Since losing my lovely Pat, I have no real drive left anymore. I did see a quote that more or less sums it up: “Putting books up on Amazon is like taking sand to the beach”.  I might pop an add in somewhere along the way. Having said that, I have a one day featured campaign with BookBub in Canada, Australia and the UK on March 1st. After that? We’ll see.

So, looking ahead I can see my routines will be the dominant feature of my day. I will continue writing my book about Occupied Paris, play my Clavinova (badly) and fall asleep in the armchair when I should be writing. Oh, on the subject of playing my Clavinova, I put a video up on Tik Tok of me playing a series of Seventh chords in the key of C and talking as I played. There was no song; just me running my fingers up and down the white notes. I did manage to sound like I knew what I was doing, and I have to say it sounded good to me. Anyway, I picked up over 700 views and likes for that. Didn’t sell any books though. But what the hell, summer’s coming and I have a brand new baby boy to see next week.

Wish me luck!

Looking Back and Looking Forward

December 2023 Blog post.

December for me was always going to be about Christmas, getting ready, hanging up the decorations, parties, Carol Services and the Nativity, meeting up with family and knowing there will always be an empty chair at my table. But that’s life, so instead of recalling what my last four weeks have been like, I thought it only right to look back at 2023 and what it meant for me. I won’t talk about domesticity: the cooking, cleaning, washing, ironing, dog walking, gardening — makes me tired just thinking about it, so let’s have a look at my world of books and how I have improved my lot.

In January I made a decision to write Romance using the pen name: Emma Carney. I thought it would be fun to write some pornographic stuff and sell thousands of books. It didn’t take me long to realise I couldn’t do it. After about five pages of writing sexy stuff, I binned it. I’ve always believed in the mantra: Write as you can, not as you can’t, which meant porn was off the table for me. But the crazy thing was I managed to write three cozy Romance novels in five months. It usually takes me about a year to write a book, so three in five months was really pulling out all the stops. If you like heart-warming stories, you won’t be disappointed in the three titles: Happy Lies The Heart; The Girl With No Name and Chapel Acre. I thought at this point that I would write No.4, but for some inexplicable reason, I lost the momentum. It kind of saddened me in a way because I thought I was on a roll, but I hadn’t lost the desire to write; it was just a case of waiting for something to turn up.

Shortly after finishing the third book, I went up to London for the Self-Publishing Live Show at the South Bank. It’s a two day event with a party on the first evening at the Mad Hatter Pub. Naturally the pub was packed. I bumped into a young writer who I’d met the year before. Her name was Kay, ex-Army, and she had to use a crutch to get round. Bit difficult when your trying to mingle in a crowd and hold on to your beer at the same time. There were about 800 authors at the show from all over the world. I was even recognised by one of the show’s organisers when I walked through the doors. That put a smile on my face.

Although inspiration can come from listening to how some of the presenters at the show obtained the success they were enjoying, it’s like trying to catch lightning in a bottle if you think you can emulate them. But you can pick up some useful ideas and attempt to follow them through. I came back from London with Covid, so no inspiration for me!

The middle part of 2023 was flat for me with regard to my book world, but there were other small avenues to explore; not least the ‘Fun Day’ on the green here at Mill Farm. I had a table with my books, met a lot of lovely people and managed to sell about twenty five books; most of which were my Emma Carney Romances. I’ve done several book events before, most of them before I lost my lovely Pat, and it was nice to be back out there again. I’ve signed up for next year’s Fun Day as well.

As summer came in with all that heat, I took myself off to Lincolnshire to spend a couple of days with one of our friends from Spain: Pauline. Pat and I first met Pauline and her husband, Brian, about twenty five years ago. Brian died shortly after Pat. I brought Pauline and her little Chihuahua, Daisy, down here for a week or so, and then took her home. On the way back I got caught speeding in some little village and ended up having to attend a Speed Awareness Course here in Bognor Regis. That was fun. Oh, 34 mph in a 30 mph zone by the way.

And then I got inspired and began thinking about writing a book set in Occupied Paris in 1940. I started researching and bought a couple of second hand books, and I also renewed my library ticket for another book. I found the whole thing fascinating, particularly a book about the SOE heroines, many of whom gave their lives for us, murdered by the Nazis in the most horrific way. In fact, I’m going to the Minerva Theatre in Chichester next month to watch a talk on these women. It will be given by the local, well-known author, Kate Mosse.

I got on reasonably well with the book and completed about 17000 words before having to set it aside as other events began encroaching upon my free time. One of which was the Turkey and Tinsel holiday in Weymouth at the end of November. It was organised by one of our residents, Graham, and was for five days. I think I was the only single man on the bus. I know there were fourteen single rooms booked, so I presume all the others were ladies. I think I must have met all of them during the week. It was nice to get to know new people, see new faces and learn other people’s names, which makes you feel you are a little bit closer to being part of the community.

Back to my world of books and the hard part of promotion and marketing. I made the decision to put more effort into this; something I’ve always been rubbish at. My book sales on Amazon have virtually flat-lined for most of the year, meaning I really had to try harder. To that end, I started two campaigns: one under the guidance of Mark Dawson (SPF Live Show gaffer) through his excellent ‘Launchpad’ course. I didn’t have to pay for it because I’ve been with Mark for about six years now — a fully paid up member. The other campaign came about in a completely unexpected way: something I’ve always studiously avoided because of the cost. It is run by a small team of professionals and is expensive. However, both campaigns were started about the middle of November. Since then I have sold about 150 books in six weeks. Considering I’d done nothing for so long, this is a real uptick for me and gives me hope for 2024. All I have to do is keep the balls in the air and not let them drop.

So as I look ahead to next year, I hope to finish my next book, which will be called Shadow Over Paris, and also see myself make real, positive inroads into the world of books.

Wish me luck!

Happy New Year! xx

Catching Lightning in a Bottle

The month of November has been a fairly positive month for me, both domestically and in the book world. At the start of the month, I was able to look forward to a coach trip to Weymouth with a group from the small estate where I live. I also made inroads into my novel to be set in Paris in 1940, and I embarked on a course to get me back into the world of books as an established writer.

The holiday over five days meant I would be with a lot of people I knew by sight, one or two who I knew, and several who eventually became friends of mine. At least; I would like to think so. I was a little ambivalent about the holiday at first, and it was difficult not having my lovely Pat with me, but I realised that this was probably the right kind of holiday for me given my circumstances. So much so that I tried to book up for next year’s summer holiday, but unfortunately all the single rooms have gone, which means I’ll have to go on the waiting list.

I managed a trip to Brighton to see my Granddaughter, Gemma, who is heavily pregnant, and her little boy, Orin, who is six and wears his mother out. I enjoyed my time with them and even managed to get a ‘Full English’ breakfast at a dog-friendly café, while Gemma was able to have her choice of Vegan food.

I had a major problem with the Landline emergency call button that I wear on my wrist. The alarm went off early morning meaning my neighbour, who was in Brighton, got a phone call from the Lifeline people asking if I was alright. I happened to be fast asleep in bed at the time. Then the alarm went off again while I was having my breakfast. The upshot of this was that my ‘Bat button’ was faulty. A lady from Lifeline turned up and gave me a new button. Peace reigns!

And now to the book world. I said I was making inroads into my book about Paris in 1940, which is true, but I have since put it on hold because of a project I started with Mark Dawson’s SPF Launchpad. I’ve been a paid-up member of Mark’s group for about five years, and have completed a few of the courses, although never successfully. And that is simply down to me, not the quality of the courses. However, when Mark relaunched his 101 course as the new, revamped Launchpad, I decided to knuckle down and put the effort in, because I wasn’t selling any books; I was going nowhere fast.

As a result of ‘knuckling down’, I have enjoyed some progress. One of the suggested ways to go was what Mark calls his 365-day plan. That’s right: 365 days to work on getting you where you want to be in the book market. I had to begin by dropping one of my books to 0.99 cents and advertising it for at least one month before moving on to Step 2. I started on November 16th and have since shifted 50 books. Considering I hadn’t sold anything on Amazon for several months, apart from the odd book, that is a significant achievement. Mark says we have to be patient and not expect to catch lightning in a bottle, however much we are tempted. So, I’ll stick with the promotion until the New Year, and then look at Step 2. It may not be lightning in a bottle, but hey; it’s a significant spark.

Because my promotion and marketing skill sucks, I have also started Mark’s Amazon Ads course. I did this course a few years ago too, and failed miserably, but now I’m back on board with Janet Margo who worked in Amazon’s advertising department and now runs Marks Amazon Ads course. Once again I’ll need to be dedicated and ignore the fact that I can’t expect to hit the big numbers straight away. But if I get it right, and am prepared to spend some money, it shouldn’t be too long before my spark becomes a significant light in the darkness.

I’m reluctant to figure out how much money I’ve spent or am likely to spend, but it could be a hefty chunk. If it pays off, I won’t regret it. I’ve told my boy, John, who sells T-shirts online, that if I make a million sales, I’ll buy one thousand of his T-shirts. I think he’s sold about five in the last twelve months — a bit like me with my book sales before this month.

And as I push on with my learning curve and go to bed with a smile on my face, I know there will be bumps in the road and I must not let them get me down. Christmas is coming and I know there will be a lot of diversions down which I’ll be sidetracked, but you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs, which means I have to accept the normal, Christmassy side of things, and find some time into that learning curve when I can. And if any of you see my promotion for A Covert War (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00V73HFO8) on Facebook or elsewhere, please share it (or buy it!); that would be a big help.

See you next month. Wish me luck!