The learning curve steepens.

This is the Chindi book group at the UK Southern Book show — the ‘Worthing Event’. There were mixed feelings about the day, but for myself, I was happy to be there, meet other authors, talk to readers and sell a couple of books. The day went on too long, meaning some early departures, including our group. I was scheduled to give a fifteen minute talk at 5.15pm, but it was obvious that I would be speaking to myself by then. We had authors and publishers from all over the United Kingdom, which surprised me because I expected the majority to come from the southern part of the country. Fortunately the bad weather had subsided by then, which meant just about a 100% show from everyone. As for the foot traffic, the visiting public, it was hard to quantify the attraction the show had, despite being inside the theatre on Worthing Pier.

The organiser of the event was Natasha Murray (nmurray.moonfruit.com). It was the first time for her and she did everything herself, which was an amazing and tremendous effort. She has asked for feedback too, and I know there are a few of our group who have shown a reluctance about doing this again next year, but I expect to turn up if Natasha holds the show again. She has already promised changes to the date (later in the year), and maybe a change of venue. My own feelings about these kind of events is that it’s more about marketing, networking and meeting people rather than selling books and making a lot of money.

I’m now leaning towards an extended effort on promotion and marketing. I don’t mean I’m going to spend more money, but I want to consolidate links with potential readers and other author forums. I watched a podcast yesterday about a new writer who gave up her job and spent three months developing a community relationship with potential readers before even publishing a book. The amount of work she put in was remarkable, but the results proved worth the effort. Within twelve months she had tripled what she would have earned had she stayed at work. Now I don’t pretend that I’m about to do anything like that, but it does highlight the need for some serious effort in the P&M department for results to flow. I’ve no idea yet how I’ll improve my social media skills, but it’s something I have to work on.

My WIP has been modified for the umpteenth time now. Something tells me I should give it up and write fairy stories or something, but I’ll persevere and aim for a completed novel by the end of the year. Because I’m writing what is essentially a crime novel, I have to keep going back in the story to drop something in that gets picked up by the main character later in the story. I’m finding it difficult because crime writing seems a little bit specialised to me now. I’ll probably start sending teasers out to my subs list, see what they think maybe.

I am seeing improvements to my BB ads sales. I have overtaken the February figure already, but still have a long way to go and, probably, much tweaking to do. I might have to run a second ad, just to get some kind of comparison.

On the domestic front, Tuppence just about scraped through on her weigh-in, and is now back under our control. Let’s hope she manages to stay slim. Wish me (us) luck!

Challenging Times

This week, the weather has put a damper on the country and affected all walks of life. Accidents, people killed, motorists stranded for hours on end, trains and buses cancelled, emergency services stretched to the limit, and the military called in. The homeless have been particularly hard-hit, and so too have those pensioners who need home delivery of much of their vital supplies. So what has been my worry? I’ve been hoping that the UK Southern Book show on Sunday — tomorrow! — will not be affected. Big deal, eh? I took a drive along the coast to Worthing last Thursday to check on the venue and local parking. The sun was shining, there was no snow on the roads, which were bone dry, and everything looked great. Never mind about the rest of the country struggling; my patch was OK. Thoughtless or what?

But we know that’s not the case, is it? I wish the whole country was enjoying sunshine and good weather. And I wish the whole country was out shopping and buying my books. We can dream, eh? The Mystery & Crime book talk at Portsmouth Book Fest today had to be cancelled because several of the writers who were scheduled to attend couldn’t make it because of the weather, so I’m hoping the snow will disappear and people will brave the cold weather to come along to our event at Worthing.

I found myself having a chat with my son about my WIP yesterday, and the struggle I’m having in trying to write a thriller within the constraints of developing a ‘Series character’. In my case it’s Marcus Blake, who has been the central character in two of my books — A Covert War and Where the Wicked Dwell. I’m in a literary straitjacket because of it: self-inflicted, I know. My son suggested I write a pulp fiction thriller and put Blake in when I’ve finished. I threw the challenge back at him and asked him to give me a substantial plot-line so I could write without prevarication and bang out my next, mind-boggling thriller. I don’t know if he’s up for it though, not being a writer. But he’s an intelligent man and, who knows? He might get the bug and become a better writer than me. He can beat me at darts and snooker any day. And if I played golf he’d hammer me, but this might be something on which I would leave him standing.

My BookBub ads are making some kind of progress. I can see some increase in sales compared to last month, but my latest advert seems to be struggling, so I’ll probably have to dive in and have a major re-think about which way to go with this. I actually raised the daily budget and increased the author keywords, hoping it would give me more relevance, but it seems to be having the opposite affect according to my latest figures. So, it might be a case of “Less is more”, and I need to reduce both budget and keywords.

On the domestic front, Tuppence still doesn’t know she’s on a weight-loss programme (I like that phrase). She still wants to eat anything we do, and keeps sitting in front of you, looking up with those lovely, Cockapoo eyes, waiting for you to give her some of whatever it is you’re eating. It’s difficult, isn’t it? Wish me luck!

Building blocks

Amazon never fails to surprise. The first copy of my paperback, The Boy from Berlin arrived. I checked it out, found nothing wrong, and was well pleased with the result. I was surprised, though, to see the book had been printed in Poland. I ordered another four copies, which were exactly the same as the first, except they were printed in UK. I wondered if there might be a difference to the paper quality, but I guess they have a particular type of paper to be used on all their printed copies.

My sales figures are improving (slowly). Although I haven’t cracked the author keyword for best results, I can see movement. My D2D results started coming in about fourteen days after the beginning of the month, which wasn’t surprising because I created the new advert about the 7th. Amazon is also improving steadily. I’m nowhere near those authors who excel at this advertising game and manage to sell at least two hundred books a month, but I hope I’ll get there.

I made some progress again with my WIP. There is an old saying: The moving finger having writ moves on; and all thy piety and wit cannot remove but a single word of it. Or something like that! I find it difficult to change my early plot lines, my character’s situation and the way I think the story should be re-written, but it’s a resistance I have to overcome. In fact, I thought I might have to remove my main character, Marcus Blake, but realised that this was supposed to be book No. 3 in the Marcus Blake series, and he had to stay. I still wonder who’s writing this book; me or Marcus Blake.

I took Pat to our local hospital for a check-up to her eye. Since the cataract op a couple of weeks ago, she cannot wear glasses, and has to wait for another four weeks before seeing an optician. See did think about reading one of my large print editions, just as an experiment. I have a couple of these, published by Ulverscroft. I think they’ve gone out of business now. Their main clients were the libraries in UK and elsewhere, but what with the closure of so many and the withdrawal of funds, book purchasing by them now is very selective. The top author in the PLR (Public Lending Right) is Jacqueline Wilson with 16 million loans — mostly children’s books. So come on you authors of books for the youngsters, start badgering your local library to stock yours.

I preached the sermon at my local church this morning. I was little nervous because this was my first for a Sunday morning at this church, but got through it successfully. Preaching is much like writing: you have to do your research and write something that is relevant and interesting. I believe talent is God given, and believe also that this enables me to be creative and to get some good stuff down on paper.

Next Sunday is the big one: The UK Southern Book show at Worthing in West Sussex. I’m hoping I will meet at least one person who has read my stuff (and liked it!). If you’re local, why not pop in? www.uksouthernbookshow.co.uk. Wish me luck!