Its been the last day of my double promotion for The Last and The Lost, and free downloads have hit the peak of 7,000 and not moved much since. It’s less than I hoped for (5k each book), but I’m happy really. 3 5-star reviews came in for The Last over the course of the promo, taking it to 39 and an average of 4.7, very close to 4.8. Who cares about number of reviews? I think readers will. Primarily though- it’s the big promo sites. Bookbub look at number of reviews. More is no guarantee they’ll feature you, but …
Last / Lost promo day 4
Downloads still hanging around at 5-6k, tomorrow is the last day. I am knackered after final day of this intensive course- resits, last-minute marking, boat party, then dinner for 4 hours. Enormous fun, and ready for bed! More detIls tomorrow. Here’s a photo of me and the other teachers in the boat partying in the Thames (80 students behind the camera). I’m the guy.
Last / Lost promo day 3
Free downloads seem to have really dropped off today. After getting 3000 yesterday and peaking at 62 in the overall free chart, The Lost only added a few hundred more today. Free seems to ever decreasing returns. This may be true for everyone or just for me- but unless things take an upturn, I’ll have to think hard if there’s a better way to get the word out. So far, 3200 Lost and 2200 Last. It’s still a ways off the modest (I thought) goal of 5k. If either results in a good post-free bounce though, or more good reviews, …
Last / Lost promo day 2
So far In my double free promo I have shipped: 1500 free The Last 1600 free The Lost It is not what I hoped, but there’s still plenty of time left in today, and 3 more free days to come. I might hit my modest targets of 5000 free each. But, I suppose the appeal of free has faded. 1 year ago, with a far smaller platform, I promoted Mr. Ruins and King Ruin back to back like I’ve done now, and they got 5000 each with less reviews, less money spent on ads, and less marketing effort generally. A …
Last / Lost promo day 1
The first day of promotion for The Last is winding down here in the UK and right in the thick of things in the U.S., with around 1000 free downloads to date. I’m hoping that will at least double by the end of business today, then keep on ticking over for a few days after, to hit 5000+ by Saturday. A few extra promotion sites picked The Last up, including the fairly heavyweight Book Gorilla, and a service called Book Scream. That’s great, thank you. I’ve been the tweeting the link all day, because why not, what can it hurt- …
5 + 3 reviews on The Lost so far
The Lost has 5 reviews on Amazon US and 3 on UK, with 7 on Goodreads. This is fantastic- probably the fastest review response I’ve had yet- all with very valuable thoughts shared- thank you again! Hopefully more will roll in by the FREE promo that starts tomorrow. I’ll post highlight bits in the next day or so. Reminder– both The Last and The Lost will be free tomorrow, Tuesday 18!! Concerning the 3rd book in the series: The L*st, or TL3 as I call it, I’m having lots of thoughts. There’s so many stories I want to tell, many …
Catching fish (reviews)
Some reviews have started to come in for The Lost- thank you Rob, Pam, Chris, Dom, Katy and Scott- as well as to all those working them up or getting ready to post. Thank you! Perhaps because of this fast influx, I’ve just heard from the best promo site on my lineup, ENT, that they’re going to run both books on 18 and 19 just as I hoped. Yeah! In the world of book promos there is Bookbub (who have not run me yet despite many applications), The Midlist (likewise), then ENT. Thank you ENT! The book goes free in …
Angling for reviews
Today The Lost is out! I have spent much of the day reeling in my lines, checking my bait, and hoping some gorgeous shiny fish will slip over the bow. I’m talking about reviews. I’m also talking about my combined social media (FB and twit) plus my mailing list. That’s maybe 500 + 600 + 350. How many of those actually read what I write, maybe 20%? I hope it’s that high. Engagement is tricky, and I have been notoriously absent on most media for lets be honest, ever. 20 delicious souls took on the role of beta reading The …
Superhero novel?
I’m still in the middle of my Zombie Ocean series, with potentially 4 books left to go in the arc I’ve planned so far, but I’m thinking what I’ll do next, possibly after book 3, and I’m thinking- SUPERHERO. Then I draw a bit of a blank. I feel like I want to write this, though I haven’t got a clear idea yet. To get ideas, I surf Amazon bestseller lists, make lists of what I like about the genre and my favorite books/movies, list up cool plot ideas/characters. What I’ve got so far is simple. I want to write …
Tv tropes- crazy writers resource
I stumbled upon this website- http://tvtropes.org/ – which is crammed full of a seemingly endless parade of tropes used in storytelling. I’ve been clicking through it and just learning and learning- they have names for all the tropes out there, many of them extremely creative, as well as examples of each from books, Tv, movies, comics, etc.. I feel like this should be standard material for writers to know. I’ve read countless books on plot, story, craft etc, but none that I going through tropes, basically all the possible plot shapes/twists/events, in such an encyclopedic manner. I go through it …