(Blog post for August 2022)
The month of July has witnessed a definite change in the way in which I have started to turn my life around. The impact of the Writers Retreat in Ireland in June, together with the Self-Publishing Live show in London, has been the reason for this. I needed to find a way of changing my routine so I could devote more time to writing, marketing and promotion. The first thing I did was to stop buying a newspaper. It is amazing how much time can be wasted reading unwelcome news, pages of adverts and moaning about nothing worth reading in the papers these days.
The next thing was to stop watching so much TV and to spend more time writing. Once I had got used to this idea, I found myself sometimes writing in the evening with just the radio on. I do watch TV of course but try diligently to watch only particular programmes. Naturally, I still have to deal with normal routines: gardening, housework, walking the dog, going to church etc., and there are breaks when I am invited to share time with the family.
So what have I achieved to date? I made the decision to rewrite my current WIP after a one to one with my Publisher, Rhonda, in Ireland. It meant starting from the beginning of my 40,000 words and approaching it from a different angle. So far I have produced 50,000 words and have now worked out a sequence of events that will complete the story and bring me to my usual target of 80,000 words. If I continue at my current rate of progress, I could have the book ready by Christmas. We will see.
Promotion and marketing? Well, last month I told you how I sold about sixty-five books on Facebook using a David Gaughran video as a guide. I continued with that and sold another twenty-five books before the campaign faded away. I did another ad on FB, but achieved nothing with that, so I have switched to Amazon Ads. Not too sure about that though.
I have also run a FREE book campaign with Hello Books. That finished July 31st, and over the three days of the promo I have given away around seven hundred books. The title is Where the Wicked Dwell. The book will be free for a few more days on my Amazon Product page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06WD8988W.
Alongside those efforts, I have submitted Hell’s Gate for a standard, short campaign, with Author Glow. I’ve no idea how that will go, but for me now, it is all about immersing myself in the book world and getting my ‘mojo’ back.
On the downside, the result of my two weeks away meant I ended up with Covid. Six days positive followed by what is often referred to as ‘Long Covid’. It was no fun and seriously curtailed my involvement in most things, although I did manage to write.
But beneath all the good and uplifting news, I still miss my lovely Pat. I am managing that; meanwhile the book world is like a metaphor for a crutch that supports me as I try to live my life as normally as I can. I will keep plugging away.
Wish me luck!