Ups and Downs of a writer's life, and a little poser

Nov. 8th

It’s been ups and downs for me this week. I received my copy of Past Imperfect from Ingram Spark and was very disappointed with the result (the jacket). Unfortunately I didn’t keep a copy of the digital proof, so have to accept the final product as my responsibility. I decided I couldn’t use the book for my launch on Friday 13^th, so I ordered 25 copies from CreateSpace. It’s now six days and they haven’t e-mailed me to say the books are on their way. It’s unlikely they will arrive by the end of the week now. I live in hopes but am expecting to go to the launch party with eight copies. Hardly the stuff of competency.

On the up side, Pat has finished the read through and I have completed my manuscript. I knocked up a book jacket and sent it our four sons for their comments. I also gave it a new title: A Dangerous Game. I expect to use the jacket for the e-book, but will ask our son, Terry, to do the paperback for me. That way I might avoid the problems I experienced with Ingram Spark. I hadn’t made up my mind when to launch the book, but Amazon may have made up my mind for me. I received an e-mail from them today inviting me to try Kindle Scout. The idea is that I submit my MS plus jacket, blurb etc., to them. If they agree to put it into the Kindle Scout project, I will go into a contract with them with certain guarantees and get a $1500 advance. I will be given thirty days to persuade all my social network contacts and friends to “select” my book. At the end of 45 days I will either have a contract with Amazon or be on my own. And because I had been thinking of a launch in January, the 45 day period fits in nicely without really disturbing my plans.  So I could be going that route within the next couple of days. I’ve nothing to lose anyway.

My permafree title, The Eagle’s Covenant was on promotion last Tuesday with Kboards, and I have seen an upswing in the downloads. Hopefully this will increase my e-mail subscription list.

I have also placed an advert on Facebook. This is more of a trial for me. I’m hoping to become more proficient and release a decent advert in the New Year, perhaps to coincide with the launch of A Dangerous Game. So far my advert has reached 10,000 people and had 50 clicks. It doesn’t seem a lot, but it means that fifty people, since last Monday, have looked at my website: that’s fifty more than might have done. Maybe I’ll pick up more subscribers, more sales. Who knows? We all live in hope.

And today we went to a Remembrance Day service at our local church. We remember fallen comrades and family members and know that for our tomorrow they gave their today. It beggars belief that mankind has never learned from the horrors of war, and will continue to go with the slaughter. Far better to confine the killing to the pages of fiction. Would we be so lucky?