Another two weeks gone by, and it’s looking like that’s my natural rhythm for these updates. Lots of things going on as ever these days: I got 2 Bookbubs! I finished up my Facebook ads experiment (unsuccessfully 🙁 ) I wrote about my Soul Jacker promo plan In overview, I’m still buzzing with the Bookbub promotions. I haven’t done any pre-promo for The Saint’s Rise yet, which is in 2 weeks, so I will get on that tomorrow. Rather, I’ve been busy setting up the Soul Jacker promo – and putting final touches to the text of book 1. It …
Writing Update 2019 week 7&8
Somehow I always let these weekly updates slip for a week – I think it’s down to these days having just too much to say! I want to get it all into its own separate post, on separate days, and thus I over-run. So this update will combo multiple major developments, starting with: BOOKBUB!!!!!!!! In December I had an International Bookbub for the Saint’s Rise, yah boo who cares right? I sold some 400 at 99c internationally, but because there is no tail in any of these countries, there is no ongoing cashstream or much more than breaking even. Maybe …
Writing Update 2019 week 6
So much happened this past week! I doubled-down on FB ads, finished first-draft editing the Ruin War series, reworked the book 1 blurb with lots of peer input, calculated readthrough for the Last Mayor series and polled my fans with 120 detailed responses now and counting. All that plus I networked twice – at First Monday Crime and my Indie Marketing group. Phew! Here are links to the key developments: Success with Facebook ads? (new versions yet to debut) Mr. Ruin reworked blurb. (new version also to debut) Calculating readthrough for Last Mayor. Why people aren’t reading through the Last …
Writing Update 2019 weeks 4&5
I skipped a week! Let’s consider the post about why I’m not a millionnaire yet the week 4 update (even though it’s not titled as such). Buoyed by the self-revelations that post brought on, I’ve gone ahead and taken another stab at Facebook ads. Almost certainly this will be an ill-fated effort ending with me stuffing more dollar bills down Zuckerburg’s hoodie-front, for paltry returns, but what they hey. It’s a laugh, amirite? Facebook Ads Here are my new ads. The copy for these kind of wrote itself. It’s calm, but clear. It gives potential readers everything they need, and …
Writing Update 2019 week 3
It seems I have stopped blogging apart from these weekly writing updates! Maybe once a week is enough, really, to say everything. If anything important comes up, I’ll say it. Life mostly ticks over… Self-Editing I finished editing King Ruin, book 2 of the Ruin War series! *trumpet fanfare* Boy, this one was a headache. I recently read a new term that sums it up well – narrative urgency. King Ruin had some really great stuff in it – mostly building out world (skyscrapers buried in the desert and stuffed full of the dead) and character (King Ruin’s debate with …
Writing Update 2019 week 2
On Tuesday we had the London Indie Authors Marketing Meetup – a record number were in attendance, after some 25 expressed interest. We had perhaps 17 total, with our resident French octogenarian coming down from Oxford, our resident film critic coming in late (as ever), and a host of thriller, rom-com, drama and memoir authors all round. Brad told us about his book’s nomination for the Hollywood Voice Arts award. Kaye talked about her amazing success with Amazon UK ads. Leena got a critique on her new book’s blurb. It was a jam-packed session, which naturally devolved to the pub, …
Writing Update 2019 week 1 (belated)
Actually we’re at the end of week 2 in 2019 now, but that is for another day (tomorrow!). This week has had lots of interesting bits: a shot of external editing for Mr. Ruin, my own editing of King Ruin, and the International Bookbub. External editing I wanted fresh eyes on Mr. Ruin, which I’ve been editing off and on for months (years). All the same plot movements are there, the same characters and concepts, but it took a lot of work to really bring them to the surface – cutting through purple patches, cutting repetition, explaining concepts the first …
Writing Year in Review 2018
2018 has been a stellar, benchmark writing year for me on all kinds of fronts – sales, series completion, partnership with a trad publisher, trying on a new genre, working on my craft, networking, and reworking old material. In at the end deep end: Sales $12,200 for the year, counting only Amazon (where most of the money has been). That’s actually quite a surprise to me. It’s a pretty good chunk of change. $1000 per month. We can write off a few thousand off that on promotions, cover art, etc… but still – my best ever: 2017 – $7,600 2016 …
Writing Update 2018 week 52
Very little got written this week, what with Christmas travel adventures and then being sick the last few days. I did however have some pretty cool ideas for the thriller book #3. They’ll deal with some concerns I had re- not being as completely episodic as Jack Reacher. I don’t know about you, but I find the lack of continuity in Jack Reacher novels annoying. I want previous books to have some impact going forward. I’d love it if Jack was capable of learning and growing. It’s hard and kind of depressing to imagine him in his 50s and 60s …
Writing Update 2018 week 51
Early in the week I put the 3rd pass editing capstone on my thriller book 2, and fired it off to my Dad and Ailz – Ailz got back to me within a day and said she thought it was great, better than the first! Thank you Ailz! Much needed relief there – the topic matter skirts an edge, and I didn’t want to tip over. I moved straight on to re-editing Mr. Ruin book 1 – going over this again after writing the 2nd thriller has definitely showed up how much I’m learning about pace and story. I already …