Books, book shops and rogue jackets

January 25, 2015

I was interviewed last week at the Bognor Observer. We talked about my novel, Past Imperfect, and other aspects of my life including my cancer treatment. That wasn’t part of the plan, but once the journalist picked up on it, he wanted to include some detail in the article. I’m looking forward to seeing it in print, which will be next Thursday. Hopefully the article will appear in the Chichester Observer too: a sister newspaper. Although I don’t expect people to rush out and order the book; I hope it will provide a link to my back-list titles on Amazon and perhaps register my name amongst readers of fiction in the area. It could also help as I build with the Chindi group of writers I am now associated with.

I found myself popping into bookshops in Bognor as a result of a proposed new role for me within the group. I have been asked to look into ways of getting our books into local bookshops and retail outlets. I’m not sure that it will be too successful. Of four shops I found on Google in Bognor, only W.H.Smith offered of a chance of sales. One of the shops was stuffed with old paperbacks and was not interested in what I had to offer, while the other two had closed down. Next week I’ll be checking half a dozen shops in Chichester. I hope they are all open and willing to stock our books.

Quite by chance I opened my author page on my Amazon UK account a couple of days ago and found three, rogue book jacket copies of three of my paperbacks. Each was a plain design, no pictures, title in brackets and my name printed surname first, comma, Christian name. The publisher was CreateSpace and each jacket showed an ASIN number, which is a Kindle number, and each with a price higher than £14. I’ve contacted CreateSpace who have replied asking for the ASIN numbers so they can look into it. I suspect copyright infringement, but what loser would want to sell my paperbacks at £14 when I sell them at considerably less?

I am in the process of uploading Rosellis Gold to CreateSpace and am now battling the usual problem of getting the jacket to fit the template. This means learning Photoshop; something I don’t really have time for. The Kindle version is on Amazon, and after I have battled with the jacket, I’ll get round to putting it on Smashwords. Only four more titles to go; then I can get down to the serious business of writing. Wish me luck!

Looking at reviews, sales and publicity

January 17, 2015

I’m in the process of re-publishing seven of my titles which up until now have been published under the name of Acclaimed Books Ltd. The reason is simple: I want to manage my own titles now that me and my wife have settled back in UK. One of the problems with changing the name of the publisher — in this case from AB.c to Michael Parker — is that any reviews accumulated can be lost unless you keep the same ISBN number and don’t change the edition number. I learned the hard way with my first title and lost the reviews. But another oddity has cropped up: I have a different number of reviews for my titles depending on which Amazon site I log onto. In US for instance, my latest upload, Roselli’s Gold, has thirteen reviews, with an average showing of around four stars. But in UK there is only one review. It makes me wonder if my reviews are determined by the website from where the titles are purchased. I’ll have to ask Amazon. I suspect that my ‘readership’ in UK is very low, and I’m hoping that now I am living back in England, I can build my following.

I was once advised by someone in publishing that unless you’re on to a major thing with a publisher; the only way to build is to begin locally. It has to be the way now for a lot of self-published writers, and to begin my building project I am hoping that membership of the Chichester Independent Writers group will help me do that. I’ve only attended one meeting so far, but I am impressed with the current members who have achieved something quite significant in the twelve months they have been in existence; so much so that I am really looking forward to being a part of their programme for 2015.

I do feel as though I have a foot in two camps though, because I am traditionally published as well as being an independent. My latest novel, Past Imperfect, will be released on January 30th. while my latest title to be uploaded as an indie is Roselli’s Gold. Although I have seven titles on Amazon for which I own the rights, until now all seven have been published by Acclaimed Books Ltd. Now three of them have me as the publisher, and within a couple of months I expect to have all seven under my name. I am also using Smashwords because I want my titles available on as many platforms as possible, and Smashwords are bigger than Amazon when it comes to e-books, according to their statistics. Can you believe statistics?

I have reached something of a milestone with my current manuscript: I have run out of ideas! I finished transferring the 50,000 words I had completed thus far to Scrivener and now have no idea where or how to take the story forward. My wife says that I am like this with all my books, and this one is no different. She could be right, but I am concerned about this one because I started it about three years ago, interrupting it to write Past Imperfect. Oh the things we writers put ourselves through.

Looking ahead, I have to pick up on my promotion and social media stuff. Tomorrow I am at hospital for my ongoing cancer treatment, although this is simply medication and not chemo, thank God. And I have a couple of thoughts running around in my head with regard to local publicity etc. Maybe I'll contact some friendly radio stations. Must prepare a sales pitch though and offer my book for review. Wish me luck!

Starting well.

January 10, 2015

I’m a little early with my blog post this week, but sometimes I’m a little late. The first couple of weeks of 2015 look promising for what my progress in the literary world could be like. I have seen a short lift in my book sales, although nothing to get too excited about. I also attended the Chindi writers group in Chichester, and will be going up to London for the International Thriller Writers’ Organization’s European meeting.

Meeting with the Chindi group was something of an eye-opener, considering the progress the group has made since it began one year ago. Looking at their website (www.chindi-authors.co.uk) will give it all in greater detail, but suffice it to say that they have engaged with the reading public locally through seminars, workshops, TV and radio, and on You Tube. They have a good programme lined up for 2015 and I am looking forward to being an active member of the group.

The International Thriller Writers (ITW) meeting came right out of the blue. I joined this group about five years ago and became a contributing editor for them. I gave that up after a couple of years because I could see little benefit for me in what was a predominantly, American group whose meetings were always held in USA, and celebrated with a big bash in New York once a year. Many of the big hitters in the thriller game were members including such big names as Lee Child, Steve Berry, Jeffrey Deavour etc. So for a small fish like me swimming in a big pool, it was largely a waste of time. But out of the blue I received an e-mail from J. Penn of the ITW to say they would be holding their second meeting for European members in February. Having put myself out of the loop, so to speak, I had been unaware there had been a first meeting. Apparently it had been held at the home of Peter James: one of UK’s biggest crime writers. This second meeting will be in London, and I’m looking forward tremendously to rubbing shoulders with the big guns. It won’t be a complete waste of time for me because I will be meeting my grandson, Adam, and taking him out to lunch.

On the home front I have been busy uploading my second title, Hell’s Gate, to Amazon and CreateSpace. The proof copy of the Eagle’s Covenant is already on its way (took me ages to get that right), and I have ordered a proof copy of Hell’s Gate. At the same time I am still battling with PhotoShop; trying to learn the rudiments of that programme for when I prepare my other titles for Amazon and Smashwords.

Domestically it has been a time of buying furniture, arranging hospital appointments, birthday celebrations and looking forward to celebrating our 55th wedding anniversary. Oh, and giving serious thought to booking a cruise to Alaska. Busy times ahead, eh? Wish me luck!