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Michael's Blog (195)

Reaching Out

April 30th.

 

Where have the days gone? It seems like Christmas was only five minutes ago. I’ve had enough time since then to be halfway through my next novel, but so far I’ve done precious little. I’m feeling fairly calm about that, and expect to explode into life later this year.

Now things are returning to normal after our fairly busy schedule, I can hopefully think about the promotions I’m involved in this month and keep my fingers crossed for some light…

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Added by Michael on April 30, 2017 at 5:07am — No Comments

Getting around

April 22nd. 2017

 

I didn’t write my blog last week because I was in Spain enjoying the sun and linking up with old friends. The week before that I travelled up to Norfolk to attend the funeral of an old work colleague of mine: another opportunity to meet and chat with old friends of mine from the workplace. It also gave me the chance to spend some time with my eldest son, Vincent, and just relax in his company.

Despite all that, my mind wasn’t too far away…

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Added by Michael on April 22, 2017 at 9:30am — No Comments

Back to the Future

A different week this time: no writing, but a lot of frustration with getting a book jacket image loaded up to Ingram Spark. I’m taking advantage of their free offer to have a hardback copy of my latest book, Where the Wicked Dwell, published. I have to confess that most of the problem was my own lack of experience in working with templates. I eventually worked out the best way to use the template with the image of my jacket. It meant a lot of adjustments using Photoshop, and…

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Added by Michael on April 8, 2017 at 8:30am — No Comments

A Chatty Man

March 25th. 2107

 

The highlight of my week from a literary point of view was the interview I had with Debbi Mack, a New York Times best-selling author, last night. We set this up about two months ago. I learned a little more about Google hangouts when Debbie sent out the invite; took a little while to get going. We chatted for about 35 minutes, which will be edited to about 30 minutes for the YouTube channel. She said some very positive things about my book The…

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Added by Michael on March 25, 2017 at 9:58am — 1 Comment

Waking up to the good news and the not so good news

March 18th. 2017

 

It’s my birthday today, and the week has ended on a promising note, but also with a cautionary reminder about the cross-promotions I’m involved in. My social media workload went up, not by a dramatic amount, but enough to take up much of my free time, which meant nothing added to my WIP. The promising note I mentioned is the small rise in my book sales, and the addition of subscribers being added to my list every day. Oh, and the birthday cards,…

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Added by Michael on March 18, 2017 at 10:14am — No Comments

Cut to the Chase

March 11th. 2017

 

They say there are two things certain in life: death and taxes. There’s something else too: when you’re an indie writer, whatever you’ve tried with regard to promotion and marketing, it’s been done before by most of the others, and all with the same results — it inevitably ends up back at the drawing board.

I read a post from an author during the week about her attempts at whatever is ‘flavour of the month’. I found myself reading, nodding…

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Added by Michael on March 11, 2017 at 9:05am — No Comments

Mind Boggling

March 4th. 2017

 

A pretty full week for me one way or another: most of it consumed by tackling PC problems, uploading files and generally scratching my head when I lose my way. My book sales have progressed at a reasonable pace, but nowhere near where I would like them to be (naturally); however, I believe I can see the results of becoming more involved with other authors and giving a few books away.

I have been exchanging emails with Ingram Spark as I…

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Added by Michael on March 4, 2017 at 9:26am — 1 Comment

Buzzing around the buzz words

February 25th. 2017

 

I launched my latest book, Where the Wicked Dwell, during the week. I used Mailchimp and social media to promote it at a launch price of £0.99. I’ve no way of comparing results with other launches, and I do understand that I could have paid out a lot of money to advertise the launch and see my rankings rise. The highest I did get was 37 in the top 100 paid in the Private Investigators category. I can say I sat proudly above Stephen King…

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Added by Michael on February 25, 2017 at 8:34am — No Comments

From BT to Infinity, wireless and powerless

February 18th.

 

My Wi-Fi became Wi-Fi-less last Monday, due to the incompetence of BT. There probably isn’t the right time to lose your Wi-Fi, unless it’s during the night when you’re asleep. I had decided to change from SKY to BT, and sorted that out over the phone. The planned change was to be 24th. February. But in their wisdom, BT sent an engineer on the 13th. to make the change at 8am (eleven days early). He brought an old router and spent…

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Added by Michael on February 18, 2017 at 8:56am — No Comments

Power and absolute power

There are two phrases I often hear: “Power dressing” and “Power nap”. I’ve tried neither, but I do have a new phrase: “Power promoting”. Before 2017 dawned, my idea of promotion and marketing was never really based on a firm foundation of experience, but more a kind of subjective approach which sometimes resulted in a few book sales. I’d listened to the experts, watched the videos and believed I could eventually master the game, but the trouble was it left me little time to write. So as the…

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Added by Michael on February 12, 2017 at 6:30pm — No Comments

Work, work, work. And more work!

February 4th. 2017

 

Busy week again, but nothing to do with working on my next novel; it’s all about promotion and marketing — the buzz words in the self-publishing game. Can’t do without it unfortunately. It is so time consuming too. During the week I added a few books to Instafreebie and Bookhub. For the Instafreebie site I had to use Calibre to convert to ePub. At first I wasn’t sure I was doing it right, but eventually it all came good and I now have five books…

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Added by Michael on February 4, 2017 at 8:54am — No Comments

In the Mix

January 29th. 2017

 

Bit of a bumpy week for me with regard to promotion and marketing. I had a Bookbub promotion, which failed to achieve the results I had hoped for. I have just about covered the cost of my investment, but on the bright side I have been able to reach more than 1000 new readers across the world. I can see the results showing up in India, Canada and Australia, which is like a small, but growing market for me.

 

The other kind of bumpy…

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Added by Michael on January 29, 2017 at 8:52am — No Comments

Days to Remember

January 22nd. 2107

 

There were a few dates I had to remember over the past week: my wife’s birthday, our 57th. wedding anniversary, my older brother’s birthday and my older sister’s birthday. Oh, and there was something else that happened: Donald Trump got sworn in as the 45th. United States President. He’s the only one of that lot who could write a book and guarantee it becoming a best-seller. He wouldn’t need any marketing, and promotion…

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Added by Michael on January 22, 2017 at 9:24am — No Comments

Great Expectations

January 14th. 2017

 

Looking at my diary I can see January will eventually prove to be a busy month. I submitted my latest book, Where the Wicked Dwell to Kindle Scout. The campaign to attract nominations will run until February 11th. After that, KS will decide whether to offer me a publishing deal. But I need nominations, so how about clicking on the link and nominating my book? That’s all you have to do.…

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Added by Michael on January 17, 2017 at 10:30am — No Comments

KIndle Scout

My latest book, Where the Wicked Dwell, is now in the Kindle Scout campaign. This means I'll be asking (pleading?) for votes. It would be a great help if you could click the following link and vote for my book. Many, many thanks!

 …

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Added by Michael on January 11, 2017 at 3:46am — No Comments

Hopes and Aspirations

January 7th. 2017

 

So as the New Year rolls in and our resolutions disappear, what are we looking forward to for 2017? I know the kind of things I would like to happen, and excluding the usual hopes for peace in the world and the disappearance of poverty and hunger, I look to material hopes. By this I mean something measureable, something tangible; and although I can’t physically touch my book sales figures, I would certainly hope to see a huge jump over my last…

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Added by Michael on January 7, 2017 at 5:02am — No Comments

Wrapping it up

Nearly there: just eight days to go. This will be my last post in 2016 for obvious reasons. So much to do, so much already done. Those of you who have been following my posts will know that I am getting close to finishing my novel. My wife is doing the final edit, which should be complete by the end of the day. I will read it through again and, hopefully, not find any more errors. Pat has found plenty of those already. I’m still deliberating over the book jacket, but expect to resolve this…

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Added by Michael on December 23, 2016 at 9:30am — No Comments

Bits and Pieces

December 11th 2016

 

Do you ever read novels for a second time intentionally? About a third of the way into the Sam Bourne novel I started last week, I realised I read it a few years ago. It couldn’t have left that much of an impression on me. I sometimes read my own books again, often a few years after they have been published. I remember Barbara Cartland once saying she often read her own novels when she was feeling unwell and not in the mood for writing. Mind you,…

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Added by Michael on December 11, 2016 at 9:09am — No Comments

Infections, corrections and displacements

December 3rd. 2016.

 

Regular readers of my weekly blog may have noticed that I missed a week. That was because I got laid low by an infection that seriously impeded my work-flow. But I’m back in harness now and making good progress on my manuscript. I tried to get a little more reading in while I was poorly. I’m afraid I didn’t make it through to the end of Jack Reacher; it became tedious. I’ve started on a Sam Bourne novel now. Hope this one is more…

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Added by Michael on December 3, 2016 at 5:41am — No Comments

A Hard Day's Week

November 20th. 2016

 

It’s been a very full week for me and my wife, which has impacted on the amount of editing I’ve been able to do. The first three days we were up in Lincolnshire visiting two close friends, one of whom is unwell. As I mentioned in last week’s blog, our grandson Adam came over and looked after Tuppence. I think they both enjoyed it. I know Tuppence kept looking for Adam after he had gone home.

I managed to do some editing, snatching moments…

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Added by Michael on November 20, 2016 at 8:31am — No Comments

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