The week began for me really on Wednesday because of two events. Prior to that we took our friend Pauline back up to Baldock. It started raining as soon as we arrived, and eventually forced us all, including Pauline’s daughter and son-in-law, to abandon any hope of spending time chatting and we were forced to get back in the cars. We couldn’t use the restaurants because we had dogs with us.

But Wednesday — our No. 3 great grandson’s naming ceremony and my BookBub promotion. We turned up at the BBQ in the park in pouring rain. Set up a Wendy house (3x3 garden gazebo) alongside our son’s, pitched them both to the large, wooden, three sided lean to, and sheltered from the rain. The BBQ was alight and smoking at 11 am when we arrived and still smoking at 3.30 when we left. It poured with rain incessantly all day. We all got wet, the dogs got filthy and everyone’s clothes needed a wash by the end of the day. But being stoical, we all refused to let it dampen our spirits, and the ceremony went ahead as planned. It was good to mingle with the family and our grand-daughter’s friends. It was a real family bash and I know we all enjoyed it.

The other “emotional” event for me, the BookBub promo, was a little nerve wracking. I wasn’t convinced it would be a success, and a little concerned that I had maybe lost a lot on the deal. However, things brightened considerably overnight, and by Thursday evening I had just about broken even. Today (Saturday) I am still selling and consequently making a profit on my investment as well as adding a whole new tranche of readers. I expected sales to dwindle as the days went by, but my sales are still buoyant. I made the No. 1 spot in Canada, which included a “best seller” banner on the sales page. Can’t be bad.

I decided to try out Amazon Ads to coincide with my BookBub promotion. I elected to spend $5 a day for a week, just to see how effective it could be. Today I have spent nothing, had 99 impressions and no clicks. Obviously my advertising skills are not persuading anyone to click, so that’s something I need to bear in mind when I promote through Facebook — something I’m planning to do within the next few days.

Although I haven’t put pen to paper this week, my WIP hasn’t been far from my mind. I still struggle with the concept of a series character, preferring the idea of writing stand-alone books. But seeing the competition among indie writers favours the series novelists, I know I need to do something about it, although I feel as though I’m prostituting myself for the sake of sales. Goodness me, what we writers have to do to get recognition.

Looking ahead, our Chindi group will be supporting Cancer_UK at Arundel in a week’s time. I’ll be there hoping it doesn’t rain, but you can never tell with dear old England. Hopefully I’ll sell some books, but truthfully, it’s more about engaging with potential readers in the hope they will check out my website and buy my books.

Oh, I was more successful in North America with my BookBub deal than here in UK. Am I about to crack the American market? Wish me luck!