A Bouncy Week, but I'm Still not King of the Castle

February 7^th. 2016

I’m slowly coming back down to earth after a pretty good week with my book sales. Although I am nowhere near the hundreds and thousands mark, there are levels that mean a great deal when sales are mediocre. As a result of my Facebook advertising and some other more parochial adverts, I have managed to sell about 175 eBooks. After seeing an average sale of about one or two a day, it’s nice to see the average lifted to something like twenty or so each day. It’s beginning to taper off now, but I shall keep monitoring my FB ad and making adjustments.

On the subject of FB advertising, I was able to give a clearer insight into this at our Chindi writers’ meeting last Monday. Naturally we are all looking out for ways in which to improve our books sales, so digging into the FB advertising minefield was well received by the group. I’m no expert, but was able to follow Mark Dawson’s excellent training video and pass a lot of that on to the group. Mark Dawson, by the way, is the creator of the John Milton series. He is a high seller on Amazon: something like a million sales to date, so he knows what he is talking about.

Another small promotion our Chindi group are doing is a generous discount on our romance novels for the week leading up to Valentine’s Day. Four of us in the group have written and published a romance or two, and are making them available through our online bookshop at www.chindi-authors.co.uk. A bouquet of roses is being included as a raffle prize.

I received the first batch of my latest paperback thriller, A Dangerous Game, through the post. I’m happy with those and will be sending them off to my family etc. More will be ordered of course. I have been in contact with the local Press here in Chichester about an interview. The reply as favourable and I expect to be talking to their entertainment correspondent in a couple of weeks. He is currently in South Africa getting some sun and watching the cricket!

I’ve put a local advert out for my forthcoming ‘Book Talk’, something I’m looking forward to. So far one person has agreed to put her name down. Hopefully I’ll be chatting to more than one wannabe writer. I did get a phone call as a result of the advert from a retired chap wanting advice on publishing his memoires. At least he has written a substantial amount (62,000 words).

On the domestic front, we are having the kitchen upgraded this week: should create havoc for a while. Hopefully that will be finished by the weekend. Apart from that, life goes on. I still haven’t come up with an idea for my next book. Well, I have actually come up with ideas but have binned them within a couple of days. One of my sons tells me he has a great idea for a novel. He is going to impart this gem of an idea to me later this week. Could be good — or not. If he comes up with a cracker, I’m all set; but if not, then it’s nose to the grindstone and putting my thinking cap on. Wish me luck!